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MEXICO: 



BEFORE AND AFTER THE CONQUEST. 



BY 



\y 



MICHEL CHEYALIER, 

AUTHOR OF "society, MANNERS, AND POLITICS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. 



BY 



FAY. ROBINSON. 



COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME. 




PHILADELPHIA: 
CARE Y AND HART. 

1846. 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1S46, by 
CAREY AND HART, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsyl, 

r. 5? 



^-^?^-^ 



FHILADELrniA : 

T. K. AND r. G. COLLIffS, 

PKINTEKS. 



PEEFACE. 



This essay was published during the latter portion of the past year 
in La Revue des deux Mondes, and excited in France the liveliest 
attention. Mr. Chevalier, the author, is well known in this country, 
through which he traveled some years since, winning, by his gentle- 
manly bearing and high tone of feeUng, many friends. In France he 
occupies a high position in the literary and political world, and is 
distinguished by the hospitality he has ever extended to Americans. 

The translator originally contemplated the publication of only a 
portion of this essay, intending to omit nearly all of the last half of 
the second part, but was deterred from this course by the difficulty of 
doing justice to the author unless his whole argument was given. 
This book, it is believed, will be found a faithful reflex of the original? 
and in the present condition of affairs, an amusing contribution to our 
information about a country in many respects interesting to us. 

This essay was written as a feeler to the popular mind, and to 
awaken it to the great value of Mexico, in a commercial point of 
view, to France. How far it was successful, the public is well aware, 
from the great interest taken by the government and diplomatists 
of France in our disputes with that country. 



MEXICO: 

BEEOEE AND APTEE THE CONaUEST. 



I. EMBARKATION OF CORTEZ. 

* On Holy Thursday, in 1519, an armed flotilla anchored between 
the island of St. Juan de Ulloa and the main land. The men it bore 
were young, with the exception, perhaps, of two priests of venerable 
air. The -commander was thirty -four years of age. Courage and 
self-confidence animated the expression of every countenance, and 
their brows, darkened by the sun, demonstrated that they were not 
at the beginning of their wanderings. Many of the company, who 
had sailed by those shores before, explained to others the bearing of 
the seas, the position of the rivers and mountains, and the character- 
istics of the natives. No sooner had they disembarked 'than one of 
the party, standing by the side of the commander, referring to some 
detailed description of the soil they stood on, said or rather sang 
a verse from the old ballad of the Enchanter Montesinos. 

" Here is France, oh Montesinos, 
There the Darro's waters run ; 
' Royal Paris lies before us, 

And our journey's end is won.'*' 

Meaning to express that he stood on the shore of a mighty empire. 

*The author of this essay thinks it his duty to say here that, independently of his 
own personal observations in Mexico, and what he has gathered from the older 
historians of the conquest and subsequent travelers, among whom M. Humboldt 
is especially worthy of notice, he has made great use of two recent works, the 
History of the Conquest of Mexico, by Mr. William Prescott of Boston, and the 
collection of documents relative to the discovery of Mexico by M. Vernaux 
Compans. This collection, though not yet complete, has already reached the 25th, 
volume, and contains documents previously unpublished in French, and many 
others which only existed as manuscripts in Spanish. 



10 MEXICO. 

Cortez, having landed at Cozumel, and made a brief campaign . 
against the Indians of Tabasco in the peninsula of Yucatan, had 
sailed to the coast of Mexico on which Grijalva had previously 
landed, and by some of the companions of whom he was now ac- 
companied. The accounts given by that navigator, the information 
he had been able to collect in Yucatan, and the vague rumors of the 
neighboring islands, all confirmed him in the belief that in Mexico 
he would find a people more industrious than any yet discovered in 
America, and who were possessed of much gold. When Cortez 
asked whence came the ornaments of gold many of the first inhabi- 
tants he met with on the main land wore, their answer was from 
Culhua: thus they called Mexico. 

Cortezandhiscompanions were under the necessity of distinguishing 
themselves, by daring exploits. They had committed an offence which 
could be expiated only by the achievement of fame or the gibbet, 
for the leaders, and imprisonment for the companions of this enter- 
prise. In flagrant rebellion against orders of the Governor, they had 
sailed from Cuba. On the faith of the reports of Grijalva, who at 
different points of the Mexican coast had exchanged beads and other 
trifles of European manufacture for the beautiful jewelry of the 
country, Velasquez had organized a formidable expedition, when we 
consider the colony he governed and the age in which he lived, and 
had assigned to Cortez the command of it. In this armament Cortez 
had invested all that he possessed. At sunrise, on the 18th of No- 
vember, 1518, Cortez, who had been informed that Velasquez, from 
feelings of jealousy, purposed to supersede him, after conference with 
his lieutenants, sailed without further leave from St. Jago de Cuba. 
Velasquez, informed of his intention, arrived thither only in time to see 
Cortez give the signal, and to hear him ask in bittej; irony for his * 
instructions. Thence, to recruit his forces, the bold adventurer had 
proceeded to other ports of Cuba: Macaca, Trinidad and Havana, 
followed by the powerless anathemas and useless orders of Velasquez 
to remain. Everywhere he made additions to the personel and 
materiel of his force, and became a rebel, a traitor, and a brigand. 
He did this with the full knowledge of all of his companions, who 
consequently became his accomplices. They were brave : many of 
them were experienced soldiers, having served against the French in 
Italy, and the Turks on the shores of the Levant. They determined 
to immortalize themselves, which was not very difficult for Castilians 
of that age to do ; they determined, by their daring exploits, to win 
pardon for their offences. 

Naturally enough, when they set sail, Cortez and his companions 



MEXICO. 1] 

estimated the Mexican races to be as powerless and enervated, as the 
savage tribes of San Domingo and Cuba, who were as indolent as they 
were inoffensive, and of this prejudice they were not entirely divested 
by the valor with which their landing at Yucatan had been resisted. 
They chiefly expected to find gold and treasure ; there was an abund- 
ance of gold, but as a Spartan chief had said to the Persian monarch, 
they must come and take it. To do this Cortez had six hundred and 
sixty-three soldiers and sailors, thirteen of whom only had arquebuses, 
and thirty-two cross-bows, with ten pieces of artillery and four falco- 
nets. They had but sixteen horses,* and to collect this small number 
the greatest difficulties had been undergone. The rest of the armament 
was on foot armed with swords, pikes or maces; this was the exhibit 
of the muster made by Cortez at Cape San Antonio, immediately before 
he sailed from Cuba. Six hundred and sixty-three men set sail to 
conquer an empire. ( 

And what was this empire ? 

In their intercourse with the people of Tabasco, all that Cortez 
and his companions had been able to gather, indicated the existence 
of a nation in the interior of the continent, of limitless power and 
opulence, by no means ignorant of the arts of civilization, since its 
people dwelt in large cities, and rich and highly cultivated plains. 
The Aztecs (this is the true name of the Mexicans) had extended 
their empire hundreds of leagues from Tenochtitlan, (now called the 
City of Mexico,) their capital ; they had made conquests of which 
they retained possession, and spread everywhere the terror of their 
arms. Their supremacy and laws were submitted to in Guatemala. 
The name of their Emperor Montezuma inspired the greatest terror 
and respect. Cortez, in his first interview with Tentilla, governor of 
the province in which he disembarked, a soldier full of courtesy, a 
true courtier, remarkable for his tact B,xidi finesse, having said that he 
was himself the envoy of a monarch great as the Mexicans' master, 
saw with what astonishment he received the intelligence of the exist- 
ence of any king mighty as Montezuma. Some weeks afterwards, 
Cortez asked him to whom he was vassal. " To whom should I be 
but Montezuma?" Later still, on his march into the interior, after his 
battle with the Tlascalans, a chief, whom he had asked if Montezuma 
was not his sovereign, answered, " Of whom is Montezuma not the 
sovereign ?" An unheard-of luxury surrounc^ed the person of this 

* There were few horses then in Cuba. Cortez paid for those he had four hun- 
dred and fifty or five hundred fesos de oro a piece. According to Prescott, the 
value of the peso de oro is about sixty-four francs; and the value of each beast 
thirty thousand four hundred francs. 



12 MEXICO.. 

prince. It was etiquette to speak to him with eyes bent on the 
ground. " I believe," wrote Cortez to Charles V., " that no sultan or 
infidel prince is served with such luxury or ceremony ;" and in the 
mouth of Cortez the word sultan is one expressing the greatest luxury 
and splendor. 

The words preserved by Bernal Diaz, with which the emperor 
received Cortez, when he gave him audience in his palace in Mexico, 
showed him what relation the monarch bore to the population of the 
New World, and what enterprise lay before himself in a contest with 
countless soldiers and armies. " Your friends of Tlascala have told 
you, probably," said he, with a smile, " that I am like the gods— that 
I dwell in a palace of gold, silver and gems. These you see are idle 
tales; my palace, like the dwellings of other men around, is of wood 
and stone. My body (uncovering his arm) is like yours, of flesh and 
bone. I certainly inherited from my fathers an immense empire, 
vast territories with precious metals, but . . . ." 

Let us yet look deeply into things; let us see what was the intel- 
lectual capital of the JNIexican Empire, what moral excellence, what 
religious culture it had attained. 



IL CONDITION OF ART AND SCIENCE IN MEXICO. 

Population, the first source of all wealth, was abundant. The 
general tradition is that Montezuma was lord of thirty vassals, each 
of whom could put in the field one hundred thousand men. I am 
disposed to admit that the West sometimes indulged in exaggerations 
by no means less than those of the East, and I have no more faith in 
the existence of Montezuma's three million, than of the one million 
said to have crossed the Hellespont with Xerxes; but every page of 
the letters of Cortez, and the stories of Bernal Diaz, and the chroni- 
clers give an account of armies of forty or fifty thousand men. Every- 
thing goes to show the country to have been much more populous 
than it now is. We know that a small territory in tropical regions 
is capable of sustaining a vast population. M. de Humboldt esti- 
mates the nutritive power of land planted with bananas* as twenty- 
five times greater than that of good corn land in Europe. The 
banana, it is true, is not a product of the table land of the valley of 
IMexico, growing only in the less elevated districts called now la 
tierra caliente, or tierra templada; but on the two declivities of the 
Pacific and Atlantic, the Aztecan Empire was of vast extent, and in 
* See PEssai Politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne. 



MEXICO. 13 

the table land of the valley called tierra fria, or the cold country, 
though fire is unnecessary for comfort at any season of the year, 
the maize grew, which in tropical climates yields eight hundred grains 
for one,* and then, as now, in the form of tortillas, was the chief 
article of food. The great cities were very near each other. Around 
the basin of the lakes in the splendid Anahuac,t more smiling and 
beautiful then than now,! were twenty cities, the memory of whose 
magnificence is still preserved. Besides the superb capital, rising like 
Venice from the bosom of the waters, were Tezcuco and Tlacopan, 
residences of monafchs, Iztapalapan, a fief of the emperor's brother ; 
Chalco, Xochimilco, Xoloc, Culhuacan, Popotla, Tepejacac, Cuit- 
lahuac, Ajotzinco, Teotihuacan, &c., all of them nearly reduced to 
miserable villages, like the metropolis of Greece, like Thebes and Mem- 
phis, happier though than Babylon, Nineveh and Persepolis, whose 
very site even is forgotten. Mexico had a population of more than 
three hundred thousand souls. It was much larger than the modern 
city built by Cortez on the ruins of the first, which now even con- 
tains a population of one hundred and fifty thousand. Tezcuco 
contained one hundred and fifty thousand. Iztapalapan at least 
sixty thousand. At the base of the declivity of the snowy chain 
opposite Mexico, was the mercantile and religious capital of Chololan, 
containing not less than one hundred thousand souls. § 

A large population is the index of a certain degree of civilization ; 
wherever men are crowded together, subsistence cannot be had with- 
out industry : regular laws must provide for necessary difiiculties. To 
maintain this multitude, measures for the future must be taken, and 
prudence and preparation indicate some degree of science. The 
industry of the inhabitants of the table land was remarkable ; the 

* The average yield of maize in Mexico is one hundred and fifty fold. Eight 
hundred fold is uncommon, and to be attributed to peculiar locations. 

t This is the name yet borne by the vast table land which conkitutes a large 
portion of the actual table land of Mexico. The name signifies near the water, 
and was applied to the large lakes within its circumference. 

X Because the Spaniards, to place the city out of all danger of inundation, have 
nearly dried up the ponds of water, and exposed to the action of the sun a soil 
impregnated with salt and therefore barren. 

I The road between Tanepantla and Ahuahuetes passes nearly an hour's jour- 
ney amid the ruins of the ancient city. From it as well as from the ruin s between 
Tacuba and Iztapalapan, we may learn how much Mexico, as rebuilt by Cortez, 
is smaller than the ancient Tenochtitlan under the reign of the last Montezuma. 
The enormous size of the market place of Tlatelolco which yet exists, proves the 
ancient city to have been immense.— (Essai Politique sur la Nouvelle Esimgm. — 
Humboldt, vol. ii. p. 43.) 



14 MEXICO. 

first and earliest of all arts, agriculture, the mother of states, was 
llourishing. We know not wily the soil of Mexico is capable of such 
a variety of products. In consequence of the gradual elevation of the 
land from the level of the sea to {in immense plain between two and 
three thousand paces above it, and which is itself the base of moun- 
tains covered with eternal snow, beneath the torrid zone it presents 
in a short space, a succession of all possible climates, from the sea 
shore with its burning sands, producing indigo, to the sides of Popo- 
catepetl, where, while the glance extends to the tierra caliente, the 
feet press upon lichens and the vegetation of Iceland and Hudson's 
Bay. The Flora Mexicana is of exceeding richness. With maize 
and the banana, the Mexicans cultivated cotton, which they knew 
how to spin and weave. They cultivated the cacao of which a beve- 
rage was made that Montezuma delighted in, and which now has 
become a favorite in Spain and throughout all Europe ; we have 
preserved too the? old Aztecan name of chocolatl. They were igno- 
rant of coffee and the sugar cane, but sugar they made from the stalk' 
of the maize. They cultivated a vast number of medicinal plants ; a 
shrub of their forests produced the vanilla, with which Mexico still 
supplies all Europe. From the cactus they produced cochineal, 
which now is one of the principal articles of Mexican export. Their 
most curious product was a peculiar kind of aloes, the Mexican agave, 
called by them the maguey. It is well known that all nations use 
some fermented drink,* and to a physiologist, Islamism appears to 
have achieved wonders in restraining the people of the east from the 
use of any similar thing. From this fondness, we more correctly 
may say, from this general necessity of all nations, results the univer- 
sal prevalence of the cultivation of the vine. The Aztecs had not 
our vine, which, subsequent to the conquest, imported, has succeeded 
well in the plains of Anahuac;t but the maguey filled its place. As soon 
as the plant was in flower the juicy shoot was cut off. The saccharine 
moisture which exuded, was collected in a natural calix in the centre 
of the plant, and having been fermented under the name oi pulque, 

* The fermented drink of the Chinese is made from rice, pretty much as our 
beer is made from barley. Other nations have fermented the saccharine juice of 
diil'erent plants. 

t The cultivation of the vine was the cause or rather the occasion of the Mexi- 
can revolution. The Spanish government, thinking only of the interest of the 
mother country, prohibited the planting of the vine and olive in the colonies. The 
curate of the small city of Dolores, had planted a few vines and attempted to per- 
suade the Indians to follow his example. The authorities destroyed them ; soon 
after, with the Lidians, he took up arms, and was the first general of tlie war of 
independence. 



MEXICO. 15 

was esteemed a delicious drink. The leaves of the maguey, bruised 
and dried in sheets, constituted a species of paper, on which they 
wrote as the Egyptians did on papyrus ; the fibres of these leaves 
were woven into a coarse cloth, or like hemp spun into rope ; the 
spines which covered the leaves answered as needles and bodkins ; 
the leaves when whole answered as tiles ; the root was an agreeable 
and wholesome food, and, moreover, its pure juice v/as sweet and 
well-flavored. The maguey answered a thousand different purposes, 
and was to them a treasure ; they never have ceased to cultivate it ; 
pulque is at this moment the favorite drink of the present Mexican 
nation. The Europeans are the only persons in Mexico who do not 
use it daily ; in the environs of every city, vast squares of aloes are 
seen far finer than any grown in the hot-beds of Europe. This is 
the maguey, whose juices especially please the Mexican palate, and 
enrich the treasury ; it is as extensively used as it was by the Azte- 
cans. i'aper is still made of it.* The maguey and the 72opal are the 
two characteristic plants of Mexico. In the uncultivated portions of 
the table-land, one sees immense spaces destitute of all trees except 
these two, either solitaVy or in small groups, a vegetation melancholy 
and strange, which remains insensible to the voice of the winds in- 
stead of echoing it as it waves in the blast as our forests do, and by 
its unbending rigidness makes the traveler, when out of the hearing 
and sight of the hamlets, fancy himself in the heart of a region where 
some angry spirit has turned all things into stone. 

Mexican agriculture knew well the influence of irrigations; canals 
which have been ruined since the conquest gave fertility to vast dis- 
tricts. Forest-craft was well known and practised ; severe laws pun- 
ished the destruction of trees. The Mexican princes knew the influ- 
ence of trees in moderating the heat of summer, and in keeping up 
the supply of moisture so necessary to the regular supply of dews. 
Inferior in this to their predecessors, the Spaniards introduced into 
Mexico that horror of trees they derive perhaps from the shepherds , 
from whom they are sprung, and which at this day makes the 
plains of Castile the most mournful of all regions. Now there is a 
scarcity in Mexico of wood for the use of mines of silver, which are 
the richest known to exist, and the mind of man has been forced to 
provide a substitute for it, in the extraction of the mineral by cold 
instead of heat, by the intervention of mercury, salt, lime, and another 
mineral ingredient called in the language of Mexico magistral. 

If Mexican agriculture was rich in vegetable products, in animal 

* Mr. Prescott speaks of two factories of paper from the maguey. 



16 MEXICO. 

life it was very impoverished. Mexico had no beasts of burden ;* 
it had neither the ox, tlie ass, the iiorse or the camel, and tliis is a 
positive proof that the Mexicans could have had onlj'' accidental in- 
tercourse with the Eastern Continent, and that they were not emi- 
grants from Asia. We may draw a similar conclusion from their 
ignorance of silk which is so important a part of the productions of 
China. The Mexicans had not even the alpaca of Peru.t They 
were ignorant of the sheep and the goat. It is easy to understand 
what a lacuna must have been created by tlie absence of quadrupeds 
in civilization. It is possible to do without the sheep, it is more easy 
to dispense with the goat, but when the beasts of burden are absent 
man must occupy their places. In these circumstances the mass of men 
must lead a servile existence; all burdens then, among the Aztecs, 
were carried by men; chiefs were carried in litters by bearers (/a- 
manes). In a similar manner, in China, when we pass out of the great 
valleys of the rivers or flir from canals, transportation is on the backs 
of men. It is so in Mexico no longer. JMules for general transporta- 
tion, and asses for the business of towns, have freed man from this 
painful labor, which at the same time is so humiliating. In moun- 
tainous districts alone, the painful task of bearing burdens even of 
wood is perpetuated.! 

For the transmission of intelligence and of orders, Montezuma 
had relays of men organized to accomplish what he required, with a 
speed equal almost to that of our mails. By means of these carriers it 
was possible to serve at his table fish, which on the preceding evening 
swam in the Gulf of Mexico. Now in Mexico horses are plenty, and 
there is over the same route a carriage road, but no one thinks of 
such a luxury. 

As if in gratitude to that nature which had been to them so prodi- 
gal of the products of the vegetable kingdom, the Aztecs were pas- 
sionately devoted to the cultivation of flowers. In the splendid, 
gardens they collected at great expense the perfumed and glittering 
flowers which a tropical sun evoked in the depths of every wood and 
on the banks of every river. JNlingled with them were medicinal 

* The Aztecs appear to have been unacquahited with the buffalo or the moun- 
tain sheep and goat of California. 

t The Aztecs were acquainted with a species of silk-worm, different however 
from that of China. The manufacture of cloth from it was small, and so incon- 
siderable that some have doubted if it ever existed, so that, as a substantial fact, 
the words of the text may be considered true. 

% According to Humboldt, the ordinary load of a man is about thirty or forty 
pounds. 



MEXICO. 17 

plants systematically arranged ; shrul?s remarkable from their flowers or 
foliage, for the excellence of their fruit or virtue of their seed, and majes- 
tic and elegant trees. They took especial pleasure in the distribution of 
parterres and groups of trees on the declivity of the hills, which were 
so frequent in their country. In this they equaled the famous hang- 
ing-gardens of Semiramis, which we of modern days now receive as 
one of the wonders of the world ; to them they conducted aqueducts 
supplied with water from a great distance, which they difiased in cas- 
cades and in basins filled with fish of the rarest kinds. Mysterious 
pavilions were concealed under the shade of a dense foliage, where 
were statues in the midst of labyrinths of flowery paths. All the 
curiosities collected in our botanical gardens ; birds of rich and varie- 
gated plumage, were confined in cages large as houses, wild animals 
and hundreds of the graceful and beautiful portion of the animal 
creation, ran free in delightful parks and hosqueis. At this epoch 
Europe had no botanical gardens. When we read the history of the 
conquest we are struck with admiration at the splendor of the garden 
of Nezahualcoyotl at Tezcotzinco (two leagues from Tezcuco), 
hanging on the sides of a hill five hundred and twenty paces high, 
and which hung over a basin into which water constantly fell from 
vases held by gigantic statues. The description of the gardens of 
Cuitlahua, brother of the emperor, and his ephemeral successor, strike 
us'in a similar manner. These gardens were at his residence of Iztapala- 
pan. OfasimilarcharacterwerethoseofacaciqueatHuaxtepic,notless 
than two leagues in circumference according to the accoCRit of Cortez. 
We are astonished at all that had been collected by Montezuma in 
his own at Mexico ; and now the traveler who wanders beneath the 
shade of the gigantic cypresses of Chapoltepec, called Montezuma's, but 
in fact older than his era, becomes satisfied of the truth of the supersti- 
tion, that a soil hallowed by the graves of monarchs cannot be sub- 
dued, and is satisfied that the Aztec emperor accomplished all tradi- 
tion says he did, on the plain which surrounds this hill of porphyry, 
in assisting the action of a tropical sun by the pure water which 
drips from the bosom of the rock ; he esteems reasonable the work 
now ridiculed as the folly of the young Viceroy Galvez, who built a 
superb castle already ruined on the summit of the mount, to be able 
to enjoy the prospect of the superb landscape spread around it. The 
humblest individuals partook of the taste for flowers. When Cortez, 
after his debarkation and the foundation of the city Villa Rica de la 
Vera Cruz, made his entry into the city of Cempoalla, the natives 
came to meet him, and men and women without fear mingled with 
soldiers, bearing bouquets and garlands of flowers with which they 



18 MEXICO. 

decked the necks of his horse and hung around his helmet in bloom- 
ing chaplets. 

Anoiher curiosity which makes the name of the Aztecs almost 
Hylic, and diffuses over their story the influence of an innocence, 
smiling as that of the shepherds of Arcadia, was the existence of 
cliinanpas, or floating gardens on the bosom of their lakes. Masses 
of lilies or of bulbous plants, doubtless inspired them with the idea of 
this, when, like the Jews under the stern law of a gentile Pharaoh, 
they prepared themselves for their future destiny. Soil was measured 
out to them, as the Bible says straw was to the Israelites. They 
added to it by binding together on the surface of the lake, masses of 
roots and oziers, over which a layer of earth was spread. This was 
done as long as the Aztecs were free. The artificial islands of fifty 
or one hundred paces in length, were devoted to the cultivation of 
vegetables and flowers for the market of the capital. Some were of 
a soil sufficiently firm to support shrubs of considerable size, and 
occasionally even huts of slight materials. They were fastened by 
cables to the shore, wherever whim dictated, or they were drawn 
along by the same means. This spectacle very much astonished the 
Spaniards, and made them almost fancy, says Bernal Diaz, that they 
had been transported to some enchanted clime, like that described in 
Amadis of Gaul, a popular romance of their era. 

The condition of art and design among them was satisfactory. 
They produced not only the necessaries of life, but its luxuries. 
Cotton and Uie fibres of the aloes supplied them with clothing ; of 
the first of these they made even a species of armor which was 
arrow-proof. They knew how to dye cloths in a great number of 
mineral and vegetable colors. I have mentioned already cochineal, 
which is, to speak exactly, an animal substance. They manufactured 
crockery for domestic purposes, and made also utensils of varnished 
wood, like the Russians of our own times. They were unacquainted 
with iron ; this useful metal, on neither of the continents, was dis- 
covered until civilization was assured. But resembling in this the 
early Greeks and Egyptians, they substituted for it brass, whijch much 
beaten becomes exceedingly hard.* They also substituted for it a 
volcanic minerafl substance, like glass, but harder, now called obsi- 
dian, by them iztli. They had the art of fashioning obsidian into 
edged tools; they made of it knives, razors, (for though not as bearded 
as we, they still had beards,) arrow and pike-heads. They paid 
great attention to their mines, from which they extracted lead, brass, 

* The use of bronze as a substitute for steel is proved, by the ruins of Pompeii, 
to have been common in antiquity. 



MEXICO. 19 

silver and gold. They excelled in working in precious metals. The 
ornaments and vases of gold and silver which Cortez received from 
Montezuma, before he ascended into the table-land, were cast, sol- 
dered, chased, and enriched with highly-polished gems, and with 
enameling then unknown to the goldsmiths of Europe, who acknow- 
ledged their inferiority, if we may credit the cotemporary historians 
of the conquest. " No prince in the world," wrote Cortez to Charles 
v., "possesses jewels so valuable," and he declared their fashion not 
inferior to their value.** 

It may be said of Mexico, as of all aristocratic and despotic govern- 
ments, where the pleasures of the few are the result of the labors of 
the many, and where the maxim humanum paucis vivit genus is 
rigidly applied. Civilization had the superfluous in excess, and often 
was deficient in the necessary. The same reflection presents itself 
naturally to the mind relative to another art practised by the Mexi- 
cans with great success, that of the manufacture o( phimaje, or cloth 
of feathers. The country, like all tropical climates, abounded with 
magnificent birds, whose feathers artistically joined to a cotton roof, 
and occasionally to the skins of animals, constituted a tissue of the 
richest and most variegated colors, in the most perfect taste, which 
was appropriated to the apparel of the rich and the drapery of their 
temples. This manufacture occupied a large portion of the working 
classes, and of all their productions awakened in Europe the greatest 
attention. 

For the battle-field, a Mexican leader hung over his cuirass of gold 
a mantelet of plumaje. He wore a casque of wood, leather, or it 
might be of silver, over which hung the angry head of some animal, 
which served as the crest of his family, with a plume of many colors. 
His wrists were adorned with bracelets, and a necklace of gold and 
gems hung over his chest. Many of them bore bucklers richly en- 
graved, and also ornamented with feathers. His arms were arrows, 
the shng, javelin, pike and maquahuitl^ a kind of two-handed sword, 
like the weapons of the middle ages, about a yard in length, with 
two edges of obsidian fixed in a l)ar of wood. Often the points of 
the arrows and pikes were of copper. When the European first 
found himself in the presence of such enemies, his ideas were that he 
would win no easy victory. Such was Cortez's idea when he found 
himself opposed to the Tlasteques, though that people were less 

* Cortez, in his letters to Charles V., protests that he exaggerates nothing, and 
his letters bear the impress of truth. Besides, he sent specimens of their jewelers' 
work to the emperor. Las Casas, Oviedo and Peter Martyr confirm his account. 



20 MEXICO. 

polished and less luxurious than the JNIexicans, at the same time that 
their arms were inferior, though their valor was not. 

Their architecture was monumental in its character. The Mexican 
soil furnished different rocks of volcanic origin, amygdaloid lavas of 
extreme hardness. The tetzontli, the most commonly employed of 
all in Mexico, is porous and consequently comparatively light, which 
renders it very handy for building purposes, at the same time that its 
consistence is hard and unalterable. For sculpture, to which they 
paid great attention, they had black porphyries. 

Tlieir palaces were spacious, generally of a single floor, and com- 
posed of many separate corps de logis distributed in a vast circum- 
ference, very much as is now done in China. We have good reason 
to think that an apprehension of earthquakes, which are frequent in 
Mexico, though not violent, was the cause of this, though the present 
inhabitants of that country, by means of tolerably firm foundations, 
have been able to erect edifices of a very considerable height. The 
Aztecs ornamented their palaces with odoriferous woods elaborately 
carved. The exterior was of a white and solid stucco, which made 
them glitter in the sun, so that when the Spaniards saw for the first 
time a Mexican city (Cempoalla), the cavalry of the advanced guard 
returned at speed to say that the houses were plated with silver. 
The interior apartments w-ere ornamented with marble and porphyry 
or hung with phimaje. The temples were vast pyramids of sun- 
burned brick, or of earth with a pavement of stone surmounted by 
sanctuaries and towers in which were statues of their gods. Above 
all, burned day and night fires which in the darkness of a tropical 
night gave to their cities a mysterious and imposing appearance. The 
immensity of temples and palaces, the enormous labor required for 
their construction of the mighty edifices crowded in the vale of 
IVIexico, among which we must include the bridges of masonry 
thrown over the lake, drew exclamations of admiration from the con- 
quistadores and their general, who in the main were not easily 
moved. When Cortez, in his reports to Charles V., mentioned the 
city of Iztapalapan, which he marched through on his way to the 
metropolis, he said that it contained palaces equal to the most beau- 
tiful in Spain. With regard to Mexico, after the obstinate defence 
of Guatimozin had forced him to demolish it house by house, he tells 
the emperor that he did it with the greatest sorrow, because nothing 
equal to it rejnains in the tvorld. 

The mechanic arts in Mexico were in their infancy, but in this 
respect the most cultivated nations of antiquity had made no greater 
advance. Yet the INIexicans had been able to move masses almost 



MEXICO. 21 

as vast in fact as those moved by the Egyptians. Of this kind was 
the vast stone of the zodiac now imbedded in the walls of the cathe- 
dral of Mexico, estimated by Prescott as weighing about fifty thou- 
sand pounds, which they had transported many leagues. 

A monk who arrived immediately after the conquest, and to whom 
we are indebted for one of the best books on their civilization, thus 
speaks of the industry of the Mexicans : 

" In general, they were ignorant of nothing that had reference to the 
labors of the fields or work in the city. One Indian never has recourse 
to another to build a house, or to procure for it the needful materials. 
Wherever they may be, they know where to find building materials of 
every kind, fuel, etc. The very children know the names and characteris- 
tics of animals, trees, grasses, ' herbs, and countless roots on which they 
subsist. All know how to work in stone, to build a house, to make a 
rope, and to procure the rough material. They are masters of all trades 
which do not require great labor or very delicate tools. When overtaken 
by night in the fields, they build huts in a few minutes, especially when 
they accompany their chiefs or Spaniards ; on which occasions all persons, 
whoever they may be, set to work with great good will." 

The variety of Mexican manufactures is certified by descriptions 
preserved in many accounts, of the market of Mexico, which was held 
every fifth day in a square surrounded by porticoes, which Cortez says 
was twice as large as the city of Salamanca, and in which sixty thou- 
sand persons could be accommodated with ease. The order whicK 
governed this multitude and presided over its transactions, the rapidity 
with which magistrates appointed for the purpose decided all disputes 
and punished infractions of good order, are proofs not to be contra- 
dicted of the civilization to which the people had attained. 

Tlieir system of oral and written numeration was very simple. 
To speak only of the latter, it was estimated by twenty instead of 
ten, which basis was expressed by a flag. The basis of the system 
was then divisible not only by the number five, to which all nations 
appear to have a predilection from the fact that it is the number of 
the fingers, but by four which contains a farther division by two. 
It is well known that the weak side of our decimal system is the in- 
divisibility of its base, ten by four. Their signs represented what in 
arithmetical language are called the successive powers of 20, that is 
to say, 20 times 20, or 400, which was expre^ed by a feather of 
20 times 400, or 8000, which was denoted by a purse; and they had 
rarely occasion to go beyond the third power, the sign of which they 
combined with other figures. The effect of this is precisely v/hat 
would be the expression by peculiar characters among us of ten, an 
hundred and a thousand. From one to twenty the numbers were 
expressed by writing a point for every unit. This arithmetical writ- 
2 



22 MEXICO. 

ing — though inferior to our own, derived from the Hindoos through 
the Arabs — is at the least as good as that of the Greeks and Romans; 
and resembles it exceedingly, for the principal Roman figures cor- 
respond to the successive powers of ten. The signs of 20, 400, 8000, 
were broken into fractions of fourths, to indicate without great com- 
plication all numbers. Thus 200 was expressed by a half of a feather, 
6000 by three-fourths of a purse. 

I have spoken of the manuscripts of the Mexicans; they had a 
system of writing; they Iiad even more than one. They used not 
only liieroglyphics, figurative as well as symbolic, but also, like the 
Egyptians, phonetic characters, expressing not things, ideas or actions, 
but sounds. From the last to the alphabet there is but a single step ; or 
rather, phonetic systems are alphabets; but they made use of this 
precious discovery even less than the Egyptians, and limited them- 
selves always within the circle of figurative or symbolic characters. 
The consequence was, that writing required greatly to be assisted by 
the memory ; their books, in leaves like ours, and not in i^oukaux, like 
those of antiquity, were preserved in libraries, almost all of which 
have been burned. The first Archbishop of Mexico, a man otherwise 
deserving of great praise, from the earnestness with which he sought 
to protect the Indians from the rapacity of the colonists who came 
lilce birds of prey to devour the fruits of the conquest, collected all the 
manuscripts upon which he could lay his hands, and made of them 
in the grand plaza of Mexico a solemn auto da/L The cotemporary 
authors say they were mountain-like in height, and every one seemed 
to think imitation of this sad example was an evidence of religious 
zeal. 

The condition of their astronomical knowledge would denote 
means of observation and methods of appreciation of surprising 
exactness. They knew the length of the year better than the Romans 
of the age of Cesar, better than Europe in the era of Charles V. and 
Francis I.: their method of intercalation to keep account of the frac- 
tion of a day, which enters into the exact duration of a tropical year, 
was nearly equal in excellence to that established by the Gregorian 
reform ; by the latter there is an intercalation of twenty-four days in 
one hundred yeans. The Aztecs intercalated twenty-five days in an 
hundred and four years. The difference is exceedingly small. The 
length of the tropical year is three hundred and sixty-five days and a 
fraction represented by five hours forty-eight minutes forty-nine 
seconds. This fractional increase of nearly a quarter of a day a 
year, rendering necessary the intercalation of a whole day, or of a 
number of days, after the lapse of four or more years, was, in the 



MEXICO. 23 

calendar of Julius Cesar, supposed to be exactly a quarter of a day ; 
so that, in the time of Pope Gregory, the world was more than ten 
days in advance of the true reckoning. The Gregorian reform, de- 
creed in 1582, inte;:calates a day in every fourth year, except in the 
secular years, when a day is intercalated only three times aut of four, 
and supposes this fraction to be five hours forty-nine minutes and 
twelve seconds. The mean year of the Gregorian calendar is then 
too long by twenty-three seconds, or by one day in four thousand 
years. The Mexicans computed this fraction in the mean year at 
five hours forty-six minutes and nine seconds. Their mean year was, 
therefore,, precisely that of the celebrated astronomers of the' Calif 
Almamon. 

La Place, astonished by the approximation of the Mexicans, 
wished to attribute to them some communication with the continent 
of Asia, but he was arrested by a very judicious reflection. 

" Why, said he, if this exact determination of the length of the year has 
been transmitted to them from the north of Asia, have they a division of 
time altogethoj: so different from that in use in the Old World'?" 

It is better then to believe that this estimate of time was the work 
of the Mexican people themselves. 

This computation of time was not among them a barren or isolated 
fact, for according to it the return of the seasons and their festivals 
was rigorously calculated. This is another reason why we should 
attribute to them the credit of the discovery. 

By the side of these remarkable proofs of intellectual power and 
civilization, we find art in its infancy. For money they used grains 
of cacao of a known number in sacks, or gold dust of uncertain quan- 
tity in the barrels of quills, or bits of other metal in the form of a 
T. Skillful as they were in the working of metals, they knew not 
how to coin or strike it of an exact and certain weight and purity. 
We are even told that they had no computation of weight, which we 
can by no means conceive of or admit, though Mr. Prescott seems to 
consider it as probable enough. One thing, however, appears certain, 
in the Mexican markets, everything was measured by volume or by 
number of pieces. So Cortez reports to Charles V., but he takes good 
care not to say that the people were without the idea of weight. 



III.— LITERATURE OF THE MEXICANS. 

I SAID that the Mexicans had books. They had a literature of 
history and poetry. They made verses and composed songs and 



24 M K X I C . 

odes. The city of Tczciico, the flourishing capital of the ^icolhus, ' 
became celfbrated for its love of letters. There* was spoken the 
most cultivated and refined of the dialects of Anahuac. According 
to Mr. Prescott it was the Alliens of the New World. From all 
Mexico, the most distinguished fomilies sent their sons thither to be 
educated, as Boturinisays,to learn the delicacies of language, poetry, 
moral philosophy, theology, astronomy, medicine and history. This 
literary and scientific movement assumed great activity under the 
reign of Nezahualcoyotl, a celebrated priiict% who just one century 
before the conquest, regained the throne of his dithers, which an 
usurper had taken possession of. Under the style of the nmsical 
council, he created an academy, which mingled with occupation as 
litterateurs, administrative and political functions. It was a corps, 
devoted to the muses we may say, and the preserver of traditions 
and good taste, and a protector of youthful talent. On certain fixed 
days authors came before it to recite their poems, and receive pre- 
miums awarded them. The three Mexican monarchs, Kings of 
Tezcuco, of Tenochtitlan (Mexico), and of Tlacopan, (the three 
mountains, to use the ordinary expression of the Spanish historians,) 
were members of this academy, and participated in its labors as 
Napoleon did in those of the Institute. They were proud to have, as 
their associates in this capacity, the most highly educated men of the _ 
country of which they were natives. As a council of censure, this 
assembly was called upon to decide on works of astronomy, history, 
chronology and science generally, before they were put in circulation ; 
but its action was not restricted to tneans of prevention, for it ap- 
pears that often aut^iors were punished; and this furnishes an example 
of the penal code of the nation : an historical falsehood, committed 
with premeditation, was visited with capital punishment. It was a 
general council of public instruction, decreeing to professors honorary 
diplomas, and watching over the studies of their pupils. 

King Nezahualcoyotl did not disdain to place himself among 
the poets who presented themselves to this academy. He cultivated 
the arts with more discernment and greatness than Nero, or than 
Louis XIV., who appeared in ballets even with pretence of being 
nee pluribus impar, and who is said never to liave committed literary 
petilesses, and not to have had any jealousy of his rivals, or to have 
become so angry with critics as to send them to places of punishment. 
He bears a strong resemblance to two great princes of the East, 
King David and the Calif Haroun al Raschid ; like the first, he 
exalted a monarchy which was crumbling to ruin ; like the second, 
his taste was exquisite, and he exhibited a rare magnificence in all 



MEXICO. 25 

his architectural designs. Like both of them, he was a legislator, and 
organized a complete system of administration, of which he was the 
center. He administered the government with real intelligence and 
success, so that in all his territory there remained scarcely any uncul- 
tivated land. Like the Calif of Bagdad he loved to assume disguises, 
and pass through his capital with his Mesrour and Giafar, mingling 
with crowds to learn what they thought of his government, and 
seeking adventures which might aiford him a means of exhibiting 
his good qualities. We find in the history of his life an episode, 
which seems formed on the story of the love of David for Bathsheba, 
the wife of the unfortunate Uriah. His odes, some of which have 
been preserved, are certainly not equal to the Psalms of David, and 
it is of course impossible to form a correct opinion from translations, 
which were perhaps extremely loose ; but their substance is remark- 
able. They are instinct with philosophy of a melancholy and tender 
character, and full of confidence in another life. His maxims, col- 
lected from many sources, and handed down to us with many details 
of his life by an Indian directly descended from him, Ixtlixochitl, 
who wrote in Spanish, are of rare beauty. From his religious ideas 
one might almost fancy him to have had direct intercourse with Plato 
or St. Paul. After regaining the throne of his fathers, he published 
a general amnesty by these words, 

"A king punishes, but does not revenge." 

We might almost fancy that we heard Louis ^U. saying that the 
king does not revenge offence offered to the Duke of Orleans. He it 
was who built a magnificent temple with this inscription on the 
altar, which recalls to our mind that on the Hill of Mars, so briUiantly 
illustrated by St. Paul : 

"To the unknown God, the cause of causes." 

To enable us to judge of the character of his poetry, the following 
is an extract, though without the peculiar color of language and 
rhythm, of one of his odes : 

"The fleeting pomps of this world are like green willows, which, when 
they arrive at an advanced age, are consumed by fire. The axe destroys 
their roots, the storm prostrates them, age and decrepitude overcome and 
render us miserable. 

"All things on earth are destined to perish. In the fullness of splendor, 
in the midst of the drunkenness of joy,a pitiless weakness seizes them,,and 
they crumble to the dust. 

"The earth is a sepulchre. All that fives and exalts itself above the sur- 
face must return again under the earth. Rivers, torrents, and mountain 
springs descend, but return no more to the pleasant spots of their birth. 
They hasten as if the time were fixed for them to precipitate themselves 



26 MEXICO. 

into the bosom of Tholiica, (the god of the sea.) What was yesterday exists 
nut to-day, and who can say tliat what exists to-day may be found to-mor- 
row ? 

"The dust of the sepulchres were once bodies animated by the living 
souls of men who sat on thrones, presided over councils, led armies to 
victory, subjected empires, and decreed to themselves homage and human 
adoration. They were filled with pride and gorged with a desire to rule. 

" But all their glories are dissipated like the threatening smoke which 
rushes from Popocatepetl ; aiid all that remains of the most glorious life is 
reduced to a small fragment of parchment on which the chronicler traces a 
few lines." 

Afterwards follows a strophe in which the royal legislator and 
poet seems inspired at once with the words which dictated to Juve- 
nal the noble verses beginning — 

Expende Annibalem, quot libras in duce summo, 

and the words addressed to the faithful on every Ash-Wednesday 
by the Christian priest when he makes the sign of the cross.* 

" Alas, did I conduct you into the obscure pathways of the Pantheon, 
and asked you where are the bones of the mighty king who first ruled over 
the Toltecs, and those of Necaxecmitl, the pious adorer of the gods ; did I ask 
you to tell me where are the remains of the Empress Xiuhtzal of incom- 
parable beauty ! If I told you to point out the holy ashes of our first father 
XoLOTL, those of the magnificent Nopaltzin, and the generous Tlotzi\, 
and even those yet warm of my father, in spite of his misfortunes glorious 
and immortal ; did I question you in a similar manner about all of my an- 
cestors, illustrious as they were, what could you answer but indipohdi, 
indipohdi, I know not, I know not, for the first and the last have alike 
mingled again in the earth ; and as it is with them, one day will it be with 
us, and those who come after us." 

With these consoling words the royal poet ends : 

" But let us remain full of confidence and courage, noble chiefs, and ye 
faithful friends, also my loyal subjects. Let us aspire to heaven where all 
is eternal, and everything defies corruption. The tomb with its horrors is 
the cradle of the sun, and the melancholy shades of death are the starry 
homes of dazzling light. "t 



IV. OX THEIR POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONSTITUTION. 

The Mexican empire was a federation of three kingdoms, formed by 
the forced or acquiescent union of tribes of the family of the Nahuatlacs; 

* Mr. Vernaux has published the Otomite text opposite to the translation of the 
Spanish version of Granados y Galvez. He has published another ode called the 
Lamentation, in Spanish and in French. 

t The obscurity of this passage must be attributed to the fact that a mystical 
meaning in it refers to the ideas of the Mexicans relative to the future state. Para- 
dise, they thought, was among the stars. 



MEXICO. 27 

these were the kingdom of the Aztecs, whose capital we have said was 
at Tenochtitlan (Mexico), that of the Acolhnes or, Tezcucans, whose 
icing resided at Tezcuco, on the other side of the lake, and the 
smaller kingdom of Tlacopan (Tacuba). At first, these three king- 
doms were of equal rank, or if there was any primacy, it was enjoyed 
by Tezcuco, distinguished, for its intellectual and moral culture. 
United, they did not extend beyond the valley of Mexico, whose cir- 
cumference is only about three or four hundred miles. The interior 
organization of the three kingdoms was nearly the same, as might be 
expected to be the case with' people of a common origin and lan- 
guage. By degrees they learned the truth of that maxim so seldom 
practised, bn,t so true, that " union is strength." They extended their 
domain, and incorporated with them other powerful nations. Of the 
three, the greatest conqueror was the kingdom of the Aztecs, whose 
population was active, more resolute and energetic than the others* 
On the arrival of the Spaniards the Mexican emperor exercised over 
his confederates an uncontradicted supremacy. He consulted them 
in circumstances of grave importance, but they had, in fact, become 
only the first of his vassals. 

The political organization was military and theocratic, but not 
without many restrictions. This seems to be the universal point de 
depart of all great nations. But it differed from that of India and 
Egypt in the fact that the population was unfettered by the slavery 
of castes. Children usually adopted the professions of their fathers, 
but this happens almost in every established community. There 
existed a nobility of more than one degree, possessed of immunities 
such as exemption from taxation, but what we call in Europe state 
offices, were not hereditary. The emperor delegated them to any 
one recommended by his own exploits. *^yen in the imperial family 
when the children were small, they were postponed to the uncle. A 
noble detracted nothing from his position by agricultural pursuits. 
" Give thyself up," said a father to his son, " to field labor or to 
]jlumaje; choose some honorable profession. Thus did thy ancestors 
before thee ; how otherwise would they have been able to provide 
for their own existence and for that of their families. Nowhere have 
I learned that man may exist on his nobility alone." Such ideas 
suppose between the privileged and the common men an absence 
of profound demarkation. Therefore every one who distinguished 
himself in war was ennobled. " It is the custom," said oi\e of the 
conquerors, " to recompense very generously soldiers who distinguish 
themselves." Were he of the humblest class of men, a brave soldier 
is made a leader and noble ; vassals are given him, and he enjoys 



28 MEXICO. 

high esteem, and everywhere is respected as a lord. In one of the 
last encounters, a Spanish officer having asked that some nobles 
mi»ht be sent to treat with him, was answered, " We are all nobles." 

The Aztec princes had established distinctions similar to our orders 
of chivalry, having their distinctive ensigns and peculiar privileges. 
It seems that there was an inferior grade to be acquired in order to 
possess the privilege of wearing ornaments on the person ; till that 
was gained, all, of whatever social position, were compelled to wear 
clothing of the coarse fibres of the aloe. The members of the imperial 
family even were subjected to this austere rule of the sumptuary 
law. Thus in the chivalry of the middle ages, a kniglit was forbidden 
to bear a banner or inscribe a derice on his shield, until he should 
have signalized himself by some warlike emprise. The military 
orders of the Aztecs were accessible to all, without any distinction of 
birth. The emperors were members of them, only under certain 
conditions. Similar institutions existed among all the neighbors of 
the Aztecs. 

In many of their customs we find traces of chivalry as it was 
understood in Europe. Thus, during the bloody wars of the Aztecs 
and people of Tlascala, the Aztecan nobles sent to the latter cotton, 
salt, cacao, and other productions which their country only furnished, 
and which during hostility could not be obtained by the people of. 
Tlascala. These articles were accompanied by courteous messages. 
Nothing derogatory to the honor of either party resulted therefrom, 
for immediately afterwards, they set to work to cut each others' 
throats with the greatest sang-froid. 

Men of letters enjoyed the greatest consideration. We have seen 
that kings mingled with perfect equality in associations very similar 
to our academies. Commerce was held in greatest esteem. Mer- 
chants passed about in large caravans, which were well armed. To 
the state they contributed much, by the information they obtained, 
not less than by the wealth which was the result of their exchanges. 
The credit enjoyed by this class, and by men of letters, is worthy of 
notice, and gives us a favorable idea of the old Mexican civilization. 
In the infancy of society, all distinction usually devolves on the war- 
rior or the priest; no one else can partake of it. 

Slavery existed among thorn, but it was merely personal, and not 
hereditary. They had a maxim of public law — that man is born 
free. The slave preserved two civil rights, which, not without reason, 
have been considered as incompatible with slavery, that of property 
and of fcxmily. A person became reduced to this condition by a 
decree of a court in criminal process, for the discharge of debts to the 



MEXICO. 29 

state, or by a voluntary sale. Parents in this manner might sell their 
children. The laws protected the slave, and rigorously stipulated for 
his rights ; by the master he was treated with kindness, as a member 
of his family, as is now done in the East, He rarely sold him except 
for vice or positive disobedience. We need not say that prisoners of 
war were reduced to slavery, where not appropriated to yet worse 
purposes. 

Laws were regularly promulgated, and tribunals established to 
enforce them. Among the Aztecs there were three jurisdictions, the 
officers of the first of which were elective, and the last resided, in each 
territorial district, in a single judge appointed by the prince, and not 
removable, from whose decrees there was no appeal. In civil affairs 
there were but two degrees of jurisdiction. In the kingdom of 
Tezcuco, the judicial organization was different, but still was con- 
formable to principles of justice and equity. Mexican law was 
extremely severe. The penalty of death was awarded to many 
crimes, for adultery, for many specified thefts, to the proprietor who 
should alter landmarks, and even to an heir who should surrender 
himself to drunkenness and dissipate his fortune. In comparison 
with the good king Nezahualcototl,. author of the code of the 
kingdom of Tezcuco, his neighbors would have esteemed Draco a 
lawgiver full of kindness. 

The administration watched over a great many of the public ne- 
cessities. Taxes were collected with the gi'eatest exactness. They 
were paid in kind, and vast granaries and magazines were prepared 
to receive them. Woe to the wretch who could not satisfy them! The 
inexorable officer sold him as a public debtor! Originally moderate, 
under the last emperors the taxes became onerous, because the 
princes had become accustomed to a number of artificial wants, and 
because, to maintain distant provinces in subjection, they were forced 
to keep in play large armies. 

As in all states who feel their power to be increasing and have a 
disposition to conquer, the army was a great object of national 
solicitude. Therefore, under the last Montezuma,* the Aztecaii 
empire was provided with an institution similar to that, whose estab- 
lishment constitutes one of Louis XIV.'s greatest claims to memory — 
its Hotel des Invalides. 

With the same reference to an increase of their power, the Aztecan 
emperors practised arts which seem always to accompany a refined 
and already corrupted civilization. In the history of the conquest we 

* There were two sovereims of this name, the first of whom was celebrated. 



30 MEXICO.- 

Icarii that Montezuma liad in his pay some of the intimate advisers of 
sovereigns who were allied with him; in this manner lie was able to 
prepare a stratagem for Cacamatzin, who occupied the throne of 
Tezcuco, and to place him in the iiands of Cortez, 

The government was an absolute monarchy ; not, however, without 
some limitations. There were great vassals with whom much diplo- 
macy was necessary to keep on good terms. He kept them near his 
person, during a great portion of the year, in his capital, where they led 
an idle existence, surrounded by his creatures: these were the chiefs 
of conquered tribes whose assimilation with the Aztecs was Xui? 
perfect, because as yet unsanctioned by the passage of time. . TKe 
Aztecan monarchs had, however, been able to convert fidelity to their 
persons into a species of religious dogma, which', at the time of the 
conquest, was observed in the ratio of the time since the conquest- of 
the several countries and their proximity to the metropolis. In the 
prince all legislative power was concentrated, though there is reason 
to believe the great Caciques preserved it somewhat modified in their 
several domains. 

In the second place the people had a valuable guarantee against 
absolutism in the immobility of the judges of the highest grade. What- 
ever respect may have surrounded the person of the prince, the people 
do not appear to have lived in the degradation of servility. Their 
utter submission was not without its dignity, and we may believe that 
to the Mexican the sentiment of duty to his sovereign corresponded 
to a certain degree with the preservation of individual rights. Some 
proof of this may be found in the discourses preserved by the Oidor 
Zurita, in which the chiefs address the emperor, and their wives the 
empress. They are opinions frankly expressed, and no legislative 
chamber of Europe, whatever spirit of opposition might animate it, 
would venture thus to address a sovereign. The following phrase is 
a fair exemplification of their general tenor. 

"God has done you a great favor in putting you in his place; doubt not, 
"therefore, that the powerful master who has given you so weighty a charge 
will assist you, and reward you with the crown of honor if you be not con- 
quered by wickedness." 

The discourse of the high priest to the emperor, on the occasion of 
what may be called his consecration, was of a similar character. It 
contained ceremonies well calculated to impress on the lofty of the 
earth their duty towards the people. " The new dignitary (the future 
sovereign elevated to the rank of a Tecle), was conducted into the 
interior of the temple, where he sometimes remained for one or two 
years in penitential observance. He sat upon the earth by day, and 



]MrE X I c o. 31 

at night a mat only was given him to rest upon. At given hours of 
the night he entered the temple to burn incense, and during each of 
the first four days he slept only for a few hours. Near him were 
guards who, whenever he became wearied, pricked him with the 
metl or maguey, which are sharp as needles, saying, "Arouse thee; 
thou shouldst not sleep, but watch over the interest of thy vassals, 
and reflect on it. Thou hast taken charge of them not to win thee rest. 
Sleep should fly from thy eyelids, which should ever be unclosed that 
thou mayest watch over thy people."* 

In the forms of taking possession of power we may easily trace 
indications of the exercise of popular sovereignty. The heir pre- 
sumptive was probably decorated with the title of Tecle or Tecuitle, 
the most honorable of their distinctions. After many religious cere- 
monies, the people insulted him with opprobrious language, and 
heaped blows on him to test his patience. Such was their resignation 
that not a word was uttered, and the head even unturned to see who 
they were who thus treated with indignity the future monarch. 

The political and social organization of the Aztecs was thus sum- 
med up by Cortez to Charles V. " As far as the obedience they show 
towards their sovereign, and their daily life, these Indians very much 
resemble the Spaniards, and there is among them good order almost 
equal to that in Spain. If we take into consideration that this people 
is barbarous, and without a knowledge of God, and of any connection 
with other people, and without reason,* we must with astonishment 
behold how wisely everything is administered." 



v.— OF THE PECULIARITIES OF THE RELIGION OF THE MEXICANS 
AND OF THEIR PRAYERS. 

The Mexicans believed in a Supreme God, Creator, and master 
of the universe. In their prayers, they distinguished him thus: 
"God, through whom we live, who art omnipresent and omniscient, 
the giver of all, good;" or "the invisible, incorporeal God, perfection 
and purity, under whose wings are found eternal repose and an in- 
violate asylum." Inferior to this Supreme Being were ranged thirteen 

* This passage and the preceding one are extracts from Zurita. The first refers 
to the sons and heirs of the chiefs of Tlascala, which was governed by an ohgar- 
chy of four chiefs. The second refers not only to Tlascala but to Cholula; a fief 
of the Aztecan empire, and to Huetzocingo. which, though a kindred, was always 
an independent nation. 

t The phrase without reason used by Cortez naeans barbarous; he elsewhere 
says the Mexicans are intellectual. 



32 MEXICO. 

inferior divinities, and more than two hundred of a yet lower grade, 
having each a day consecrated to them and receiving appropriate 
honors. The Aztccans especially honored the god of war Huitzilo- 
pocirn.i, whose image was borne before them as the Hebrews bore 
the ark- of the Lord, in their long pilgrimage from Aztlan to Te- 

NOCnriTLAX. 

Among the divinities of the Mexican Olympus, another whose 
name during the conquest is often heard, was the god of air, Quet- 
ZALCOATL. lie had dwelt upon the earth and taught mankind the arts 
of agriculture, of working in minerals, and the more difficult yet, of 
government. He closed his ears, it was said, whenever spoken to of 
war. According to the Aztecan mythology, he iiad imparted to the 
man the incon^parable pleasures of the golden age of the Greeks, 
Under liis control, the earth without cultivation was covered with 
fruits and flowers; a single stalk of maize atl'orded sustenance for a 
man, as did the bunches of grapes which the hungry Jews, after 
wanderings for forty years, found in the land of Canaan; cotton 
grew on the bush already dyed in many and rich hues. The air 
was filled with perfume, and birds of brilliant plumage uttered cease- 
lessly an ever-changing melody. But this paternal God incurred the 
enmity of a more powerful divinity, and was forced to quit the coun- 
try. In his exile he paused at the city of Cholula, where afterwards 
a temple was erected to him, the pyramidal base of which yet exists. 
When he reached the -shores of the Mexican Gulf he took leave of the 
faithful few who had followed him thus far, and promised that some 
day his children would return. Having said this, he entered his 
skiff made of the skins of serpents, and steered his course towards the 
mystic land of TIapallan, nothing of which was known except that 
it was in the east beyond the seas, that is to say, in the direction of 
Europe. Was the fable of Quetzalcoatl a tradition under a mar- 
velous form, of the domination of the Toltecs, who hud introduced 
into Mexico the arts and sciences, and subsequently disappeared. Did 
it refer to the appearance on some point of the American continent 
of a lost child of Europe, borne by the current which is found near 
the equator, and the gentle. winds which prevail there, or else tem- 
pest driven on the shores of the Mexican Gulf? Or does it indicate 
a cloudy tradition of some Scandinavian expedition to America during 
the tenth, eleventh, or twelfiji century? 

Whatever may be the truth, the memory of the happy era of Quet- 
zalcoatl, and the hope of his return, were graven in their hearts ; they 
expected him as a Messiah. The red-skinned and almost beardless 
Indians impressed on their children that Quetzalcoatl was of lofty 



MEXICO. 33 

stature, with a white skin, black hair and bearded. There could not 
be fabricated a better prophecy of the corning of the Spaniards. 

The tradition of Quetzalcoatl has many prototypes in the mytholo- 
gies of the Old World ; but the Mexicans had legends which in other 
modes resembled the fabulous stories of Greece. As we read what 
has been preserved of them, we almost fancy a translation of the 
metamorphoses of Ovid is before us. I shall quote for example's sake 
an extract from Boturini, until now untranslated. 

" A man named Yappan, wishing to win the favor of the gods, left his 
wife and family, and withdrew into a desert to lead a life of chastity and 
contemplation, and built a cabin near an altar of stone consecrated to peni- 
tence ; but the gods, who doubted the sincerity of his conversion, charged 
Yaotl, his mortal enemy, to watch him continually and keep an account 
of every action. Yappan for a long time resisted many beautiful women 
sent to tempt him, so that the gods began to praise his virtue and laugh at 
Tlazolteotl, the goddess of love, and say that Yappan was not, like other 
mortals, subject to her; until, piqued by their ridicule, she said. Do you 
believe that Yappan will persevere to the end to merit the recompense you 
grant to the virtuous ? I will myself descend to the earth to show how fra- 
gile is human virtue, and how little mankind are able to resist my power. 

" The goddess approached the house of Yappan, but perceiving him seated 
on the altar of penitence, knew that there she could exert no power over 
him. She said, in a tender voice. Come hither to me, Yappan ; I am the god- 
dess Tlazolteotl, come to bring to thee the reward of thy virtue. Deceived 
by her words, Yappan hastened to her, but scarcely had he left the altar 
when he felt a new fire circulate through his veins, and he fell into the 
snare prepared for him. 

" Yaotl, who all the while watched him, became indignant at this conduct, 
so that he could not restrain himself, but approached Yappan saying. 
Wretch, are you not ashamed to deceive the gods and profane their sanc- 
tuary? and cut off his head with one blow of the sword. Yappan fell upon 
the earth with his arms open, and the gods changed him into a scorpion of 
the color of ashes, wdaich always has its limbs extended. The vengeance of 
Yaotl was not yet satisfied, but he went to look for Tlahuitzin, Yappan's 
wife, and said to her, after showing her the body of her husband, See how 
I have punished one Avho dared to offend the gods ; but my vengeance will 
be unsatisfied till you partake of his lot. He immediately slew her also, 
and her head fell close by Yappan's. She too was changed into a female 
scorpion, and entering into a crevice of the altar to hide herself, found her 
husband there. 

" The Mexicans say all scorpions are descended from these two, and 
that, mortified at the crime of Yappan, they dare not show themselves, but 
hide behind stones. Yaotl did not escape punishment for his double 
crime, but was changed into a grasshopper." — (^Idea deuna Nueva Historia 
de la America Septentrional, par Boturini.) 

In the popular faith of Mexico, many traits of common resemblance 
to all the religions of the Old World will be found, from which a har- 
mony results which cannot be accounted for, except by the supposition 
that all have a common cradle. Thus the Mexicans believed in the 



34 MEXICO. 

deluge ; their Noah, called Coxcox, was saved in a vessel. They had 
a legend which recalls to us the Tower of Babel ; the history of our 
mother Eve and the serpent had its analogous story in their faith. A 
more surprising thing also is that many of their practices and their 
dogmas bear a close resemblance to Christianity ; they believed in 
the existence of original sin, and purified themselves from it by bap- 
tism. They thought the human race had been placed on the earth 
for punishment, and implored, with never-ceasing prayers, the pity of 
God. "When a child is born," says Zurita, "its parents salute it 
saying : thou art come to sufler, suffer, therefore, and be patient." 
Among the objects of their worship the cross was conspicuous. This 
fact is well established by twenty testimonies from Yucatan, which 
adjoined ancient Mexico, and is a part of the modern republic. It 
cannot be doubted to have been so in Mexico proper, for we read in 
the voyages of Grijalva, the predecessor of Cortez, on this coast, "at 
the island called Uloa,(now St. John d'Ulloa,the citadel of Vera Cruz,) 
a cross of white marble was worshiped, on the summit of which is 
a crown of gold ; on this cross tliey say one beautiful and glorious as 
the sun died." They had confession and absolution established among 
them. The secrets of their penitential tribunal, for here the word 
may be applied with great propriety, were inviolable. But they 
confessed but once in a lifetime, and therefore postponed it as long as 
possible. Probably, because at the epoch of the arrival of the Span- 
iards, there was a confusion between the political act and the religious 
rite, in consequence of the pre-eminence assumed by the clergy in state 
affairs, and the influence which they exerted over the mind of the 
emperor ; and religious absolution purified them from crime, even 
of responsibility to the secular power ; so that, after the conquest, 
Indians prosecuted by the civil power have been known to tender 
in full justification a confessional ticket signed by the priest of their 
village. Finally, they had a ceremony very similar to that of the 
Eucharist, in which their priests distributed among them fragments 
of an image of their divinities, which they swallowed with signs of 
humiliation, saying it was the very flesh of the god they worshiped. 

Their priests preached sentiments of charity, pardon, and the for- 
giveness of wrong. " Live in peace with all the world," said one of 
their homilies, " bear injuries with humility, and confide to an all- 
seeing God the duty of revenge." 

The rules of individual morality inspired the kindest feelings 
towards their fellows ; one might truly say a Christian charity. In 
the exhortation with which the confession terminated, the priest said 
to the penitent, " Feed thou the huugrj', clothe the naked, whatever 



MEXICO. 35 

privations be thine own fn consequence thereof, for the flesh of the 
unfortunate is thy flesh, and they are men as thou art human." 



VI. OP^ MANNERS AND SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 

Th;e manners of the Aztecs were not dissolute ; on the contrary, 
they were rather severe. With the exception of the chiefs who pos- 
sessed many concubines, they had but one wife, and the concubines 
of princes were recognized by law, and enjoyed certain privileges. 
""Whoso looks at a woman with too much curiosity, 'commits adul- 
tery with his eyes." These are almost the words of Christ recorded 
by Saint -Matthew. Marriage was protected by many formalities,' 
and celebrated with great solemnity. Divorce was only permitted 
under certain circumstances, and by the decision of a tribunal espe- 
cially established to decide on disputes originating from the marriage- 
tie. Adultery was capitally punished, and the history of the reign 
of King Nezahualpilli oflers three striking examples of its inflic- 
tion. One on the queen, wife of this prince, who was of no lower 
rank than that of a daughter of the imperial house. The princess 
and her accomplices were judged and sentenced according to all the 
rigor of the law in spite of their exalted rank. The second instance 
was that of a noble lady who surrendered her person to him without 
revealing that she was married, and the third was his own son who 
had carried on in verse a correspondence with one of the royal con- 
cubines, for cases of which kind the law made a special provision. 
The tribunals pronounced the sentence, and the father suffered it to 
be enforced, though for weeks afterwards he shut himself within his 
palace, devoured by grief, and secluding himself from every one. 

The social position of women more closely resembled what they 
occupy in Europe than in Asia. They were not shut up in harems, 
nor were their feet mutilated. They went unveiled, as with us, and 
were guests at every entertainment and festival. We in France, in 
the nineteenth century, have a province in which women are not 
admitted to festivals, and seem to live only to serve with due humi- 
lity, the lords of creation. Mexican women were exempt from hard 
labor, which men reserved to themselves with a delicacy which might 
now be imitated with much propriety in many parts of Western 
Europe, and which, of all civilized nations, the English and their 
descendants alone observe. In Mexico, it is true, things were not 
in the position they now are in England, but the intention existed. 
There are few signs which so clearly demonstrate the advance of 



36 MEXICO. 

civilizalion, as courtesy to females. In savage tribes, women are 
beasts of burden. There is, on the whole surface of the globe, neitlier 
for man nor beast, a worse condition than that occupied by the squaws 
of tiie North American Indians throughout the whole extent of the 
territories of the United States, How often, in our own provinces, 
seeing women ascend steep declivities with baskets of manure on 
their shoulders, and descend with bundles of hay and corn from the 
lofty table-lands, have I wished that there might be within the cir- 
cumference of the valley no Englishman come to purchase a warm 
sun and genial sky with his British guineas. A certain test of the 
position of the women in Mexico, is that they were admitted to tbe 
sacerdotal profession. The Mexicans had priestesses as well as 
priests, and there was a similar scale of rank for one sex as well as 
the other; but the great sacrifices, it will be seen hereafter, were 
reserved only to the priests of the highest rank. The purity of the 
IMexican priestesses has been attested by the Spanish monks who 
accompanied the conquerors, who still, however, heaped anathemas 
on the religion of the Aztecs, in which they saw everywhere the 
distinct impression of the cloven foot of the devil, and the whisking 
of his tail. 

An intimate and exact knowledge of a civilization may be ob- 
tained by examination of its social habits, and forms of intercourse, 
and of civility. Now, of those of the IMexicans, we can form a very 
positive opinion from the instructions of a father to his son, of a 
mother to her daughter, in each of the social grades, which happily 
have been preserved and published by Zurita. I shall quote at 
length the advice of parents of the middle classes, or in Zurita's own 
words, inhabitants of the town, merchants and mechanics. They are 
at once a collection of moral precepts, and an abridged code of juve- 
nile purity and honor. "" 

" ADVICE OF A FATHER TO HIS SOX. 

"Ah, my beloved son, created by the will of God, under the eyes of thy 
parents, like a fledgeling just escaped from the shell, thou seekest to fly, but 
canst do so with difficulty. We know not when the great God will per- 
mit us to rejoice in thee : pray to him,my child, to assist thee, for he is thy 
Creator, and loves thee belter than I can do. Address to him thine aspira- 
tions by night and by day, and he willbe merciful to thee, and deliver thee 
from every danger. Respect the image of thy God and all that is his. 
Pray to him devoutly, observe his festivals ; for who offends God dies 
miserably and guikily. 

* Alonzo de Zurita was a ]a\v5-er, who wrote in jNIexico, where he lived for 
nineteen years. He was auditor of the high court (?a audiencia real) of Mexico. 



MEXICO. 37 

" Honor and respect the aged ; console the poor and the afflicted by thy 
words and good works. 

" Revere and love thy father and mother ; obey them, for bitter is the 
repentance of the ill-behaving. 

"Honor and treat all with respect, then wilt thou live in peace. 

" Copy not the conduct of fools who live like animals, hear no advice, and 
respect not their parents. 

" Be careful, my son, not to laugh at the aged, the sick, the halt, or any 
who are unhappy. Be not haughty to them nor hate them, but humble 
thyself before God, through fear that thou mayst become unhappy as they 
are. 

"Poison no one, lest thou offend God in the person of his creature. Thy 
crime will surely be discovered, and thou wilt die the same death, 

" Be honest, polite, and insult no one. 

"Mingle not uncalled for in the affairs of others, lest thou be called trouble- 
some, and indiscreet. 

" Wound not the feelings of another ; avoid adultery and luxury. These 
are vices which ruin whoever yields to them, and are hateful to God. 

" Give no bad advice. 

" Be modest in thy conversation, interrupt not those who speak. If they 
speak badly, they commit an error ; be thou careful not to imitate them. 
Speak not when thou hast no cause, and when questioned, answer openly 
and honestly without passion or falsehood. If you are careful, my son, not 
to circulate stories and repeat unpleasant jests, you will avoid falsehood, 
and create no discord, which produces much grief to whoever indulges in 
them. Be not a lounger in the streets, lose not thy time in the baths and 
pubhc places, lest a devil tempt and enslave thee. 

" Be not too careful in thy dress, for it is an index of a petty mind. 

"In whatever situation thou mayst be, conduct thyself with modesty. 
Make no grimaces, and avoid vulgar gestures, else thou wilt be thought a 
libertine, and this is one of the devil's own snares. Take no one by the 
hand or garments, for this is a sure mark of indiscretion. Pay attention, 
when you, walk, not to obstruct the pathway. 

" Should any one ask you to take charge of any business, and offer you 
any inducement, reflect if it be not a snare set for thee, and if you think so, 
excuse thyself, though profit ultimately may result to thee from it. Do so, 
and thou wilt be considered wise and prudent. 

" Neither enter nor leave a room before thy superiors ; take not precedence 
of them ; leave to them always the place of honor, and seek not to deprive 
any one of it, at least until thy dignity shall have been exalted. Be modest, 
for humility wins the grace of God, and of the great. 

" Be not eager in eating or drinking, and if at table, be courteous to all 
around thee, offering frequently. If thou feastest in company and gorgest 
thyself, thou wilt be esteemed a glutton. When thou eatest, keep thine 
eyes cast down, and finish not before others do, lest thou give offence. 

" Scorn not any offering that may be made thee, and think not that thou 
deservest more, for then thou wilt receive it neither from God nor man. 

" Confide thyself entirely to God, for from him all good things come, and 
thou canst not know how near is the approach of death. 

" I shall be careful to provide thee Avith all thou needest ; suffer and be 
patient. If thou wishest a wife, say so to me, but as thou art my child, 
take not one without consulting me. 

" Be neither a gamester nor a thief, for one of these vices producelh the 



38 MEXICO. 

oilier. If thou follow my advice, thou will not be abused in the streets and 
public places. 

*' Follow the path of rectitude, oh my son. Sow good seed, and thou shalt 
gtither a rich harvest. Thou wilt live by thine own labor, and thy parents 
Avill be hap|)y in thee. 

" Man can live only with sorrow — and the necessaries of life are had with 
difficulty. With much trouble have I brought thee up, yet have never 
abandoned thee or done aught to make thee blush. ' 

'• Wouldst thou live quietly, indulge not in slander, for itproduceth many 
disputes. 

" Keep closely what you hear ; it is better another tell things than thee; but 
■when you do speak, speak boldly. 

"Tell not what you see. Be discreet, for a chattering disposition is an 
evil thing, and the liar is sure of punishment. Be silent, for no man profits 
by talking. 

" If thou shouldst be sent to any one who receives thee with severity, and 
who should abuse the person who sent thee, bear not back this answer, 
spoken, perhaps, in anger. Shouldst thou be questioned as to thy recep- 
tion, answer kindly, in mild language. Conceal the reproaches that have 
been spoken, lest both parlies be irritated and do some rash act, so that 
hereafter thou shah say >■ had I but held my pence T It will then be too 
late, and you will be esteemed an inexcusable mischief-maker. 

" Have nothing to do with your neighbor's wife ; live chastely, for we 
cannot live this life twice over, and it is short and a troublesome career. 

"Otfend no one; attack no oixe's honor; render thyself worthy of the recom- 
penses God grants to whomsoever he wills. Receive from and be thankful 
to him for whatever he may bestow, but become not proud. If thou art 
humble, thy merit will be the greater, and others will have no occasion to 
murmur. But if, on the other hand, thou shouldst attribute to thyself what 
thou meritest not, men will be oHended at, and C4od angry with thee. 

"When any one speaketh to thee, move neither the hands nor the feet, 
look neither to the right nor left, move thyself not from thy seat, nor take one. 
If thou actest otherwise, thou wilt be able to remain in the house of no one. 

" My son, if thou hearken not to thy father's words, thy end will come soon, 
because thou deservest that it should. 

"Be not angry that God hath given less to thee than to others, for then 
thou wilt offend God, who has placed thee in an honorable position. 

" If thou art what thou shouldst be, thou wilt be held up to others as a model. 

" This, oh son, is the advice of a father who loveth thee ; abide by it, 
and thou wilt prosper." 

ADVICE OF A MOTHER TO HER DAUGHTER. 

" I have borne thee, my daughter; I have properly educated and nourished 
thee. The honor of thy father rests on thee. If thou dost not thy duty, 
thou canst not live with virtuous women, and no one will marry thee. 

" We live in this world with pain and trouble; our strength becometh ex- 
hausted ; we must then obey the God who will aid us, sustain us, and grant 
us health. We must be active and careful to acquire what our necessities 
demand. 

" Avoid, my beloved daughter, idleness and negligence ; be neat and 
industrious; take care of thine own room, and see that it be in good order, 
that everything be in its proper place. Thus wilt thou have learned to 
discharge thy duty when thou becomest a wife. 



MEXICO. 39 

" Wherever thou goest, be modest ; walk not too rapidly, laughing and 
looking behind thee at the men who pass. Do thus, and thy reputation for 
modesty will be estabhshed. 

"Be polite, and speak with circumspection; and when a question is 
asked thee, answer it circumspectly and clearly. 

" Mind thy housework, weave and spin. Thou wilt then be loved and 
wilt merit to receive the necessaries of life ; thou wilt be happy if thou 
thankest God, who hath gifted thee with such talents. 

" Yield not thyself to sloth or idleness. Be not anxious to remain in 
bed, in the shade, or in the fresh air, for if thou dost so, thou wilt become 
idle and negligent. Such women will neither be respected nor loved. 

" Whether sitting or walking, resting or working, render thy conduct 
always praiseworthy, my daughter. Do thy duty as thou hast been com- 
manded by God and thy parents. 

" Let not thyself be called twice ; come promptly to see what is wanted 
with thee, that no one may be compelled to rebuke thy sloth and disobedience. 

" Listen to the commands given thee and answer not saucily ; and if 
thou canst not obey them without sin, excuse thyself, but do not utter a false- 
hood or deceive any one, for God sees thee. 

" If thou hearest a person called who is not near, go promptly thyself to 
see what is wanted. Do whatever m^' be asked, and people will think 
kindly of thee. 

" Should any one give thee good advice, profit by and despise it not, lest 
people have bad thoughts of thee. 

" Walk neither hastily nor boldly, lest people think thee an impure 
woman. 

" Be charitable ; hate and despise no one ; avoid avarice, put no bad inter- 
pretation on trifles, and be not jealous of the gifts of God to others. 

" Wrong no one lest thou too suffer wrong ; avoid evil, and follow not the 
promptings of thy heart, which may deceive thee and render thee vicious, 
an object of shame to thyself and thy parents. 

" Avoid the society of liars, of idle and gossiping women ; they will ruin 
thee. 

" Take care of thy house, go not out of doors for amusement, waste not 
thy time in the market place, the public squares and baths. To do so is 
wrong, and thus young women become corrupt and vicious, and bad thoughts 
are produced. 

" When a man speaketh to thee, listen not to him, nor answer, but be 
silent. Speak not to him, for thy words will but inflame his passion ; if you 
pay no attention to him, he will cease to follow thee. 

" Go not unnecessarily into the house of thy neighbor, lest they chatter 
about thee when thou art gone. 

" If thou goest to see thy relations, be respectful to them ; be not idle, but 
assist in any occupation they may be engaged in if thou knowest how, but 
sit not as an idle spectator. 

" If thy parents select for thee a husband, thou shouldst love, hearken to, 
obey, and take pleasure in whatever he enjoins. When he speaks to thee, 
turn not thy head away as if he uttered something unpleasant ; seek to con- 
quer thy dislike. If he liveth from thy property, do not on that account 
despise him ; be neither rude nor unkind, for then thou wilt offend God, and 
thy husband will dislike thee. Tell him thy thoughts kindly ; use not 
offensive language to him when others are by, or even when ye be alone. 
If thou dost so, the shame and contempt are thine own. 



40 MEXICO. 

" Should any one visit thy husband receive him kindly. 

"Should thy husband misbehave, tell him freely, but kindly thine opinion, 
and advise him to take care of his estate. 

" Be attentive to what labor is bcin<r done on thy lands, and take care 
of the products thereof. 

" Waste not thy stores ; aid thy husband in his labor. Thus wilt thou 
not want necessaries, and thou wilt provide for thy family and the education 
of thy children. 

"My daughter, if thou abidest by my advice, thou wilt be loved and re- 
spected by all; thou wilt live happily. If not, the fauk will be thine; you 
will soon learn the consequences of not having listened to me, and will not 
be able to say that I gave thee not good advice as a mother should." 

In the discourse of a father to his son, and especially in that of a 
mother to her daughter, there is not a single word which in this the 
nineteenth century, parents would think unfit advice to give to a child. 
A yet more remarkable thing is, that very little could even now be 
added to it.* 



VII. HU^AN SACRIFICE. 

Did we judge by the sentiments alone propagated by the rehgion 
of the Aztecans, by the practices recommended to govern the mutual 
intercourse of men, by the moral ideas received among them as rules 
of conduct, they were a wise and benevolent people ; and Philadel- 
phia could not more justly advance a claim to be called the city of 
brotherly love than Mexico. But alas for the fragile nature of man, 
and the contradictions of the human heart I These charitable prac- 
tices and sentiments, this benevolence and equity, this solicitude for 
the condition of women, justly considered a conclusive proof of the 
existence of gentle manners and social refinement, by a frightful 
sophistication of the heart and reason, were combined with constant 
offering of human sacrifices and the festivals of cannibals. Men 
were often sacrificed on the altars of their gods, and the bodies of the 
victims were solemnly devoured at the most luxuriously prepared 
banquets and festivals. They had, we have said, a sacrament resem- 
bling the Eucharist ; the bread which was there made use of was satu- 
rated with blood. The mind seems utterly confounded when it dis- 
covers that among the Mexicans, these ceremonies were not a relic of 
barbarism, transmitted from father to son, and maintained by a civil- 
ized nation from a stupid respect for its barbarous progenitors. It is a 
sufficient reason to change into a bitter skepticism that faith in human 
perfectibility which many generous souls so fondly cherish. These 

* These relics of Aztecon literature bear internal evidence of having been re- 
touched by some Spanish priest. — Translator. 



MEXICO. 41 

frightful ideas took possession of the Aztecs when they had progressed 
far on the road to civilization. In proportion as they advanced, and 
tlieir knowledge of the arts increased, the more devoted they seemed 
to become to these atrocities. They seem to have been fascinated 
by an infernal demon, and, as the Spaniards thought, to have almost 
had direct intercourse with Satan. 

We will quote a few passages from M. Humboldt, relative to the 
origin of the human sacrifices of Mexico, 

"After the commencement of the fourteenth century, the Aztecs lived 
under the government of the King of Colhuacan. They had principally 
contributed to the victory gained by this king over the Xochimilques. 
When the war was over, they wished to offer a sacrifice to their principal 
god, HuiTziLOPOCHTLi or Mexitli, the god of war, whose image placed in 
a. wicker-chair, called the seat of God, was borne by four priests ; they 
asked of their master, the King of Colhuacan, to give them some valuables, 
wherewith to perform this solemn rite. The king sent them a dead bird 
wrapped in coarse cloth; and to add yet another insult, offered himself to 
be present at the sacrifice. The Aztecs pretended to be content with this 
offer, but at the same time they jesolved to perform a sacrifice which should 
strike terror into the hearts of their masters. After a long dance around 
their idol, they led forward four Xochimilque prisoners, whom they had 
for a long time concealed. These unfortunates were immolated with cere- 
monies, which were subsequently faithfully copied until the coming of the 
Spaniards, on the platform of the great pyramid of Tenochtitlan, dedicated 
to the god of war, Huitzilopochtli. The Colhues exhibited a just horror 
at the human sacrifice, the first in their land. Fearing the atrocity of 
the Aztecs, who were subject to them, but who had become presuming on 
account of their victory over the Xochimilques, they enfranchized them on 
the sole condition that they left immediately the territory of Colhuacan. 

"The first sacrifice led to happy results for an oppressed people. The 
cause of the second was revenge. After the building of Tenochtitlan, 
Aztec was hunting on the shore of the lake for some animal to be offered 
as a sacrifice to Mexitli, and met an inhabitant of Colhuacan, called 
XoMiMiTL. Irritated against his old oppressors, he immediately attacked 
the CoLHUA, who was overcome and taken a prisoner to the new city, where 
he was immolated on the fatal stone placed at the feet of the idol. 

"The circumstances of the third sacrifice are yet more horrible. Peace 
had been apparently established between the Acolhues and the Aztecs. 
But the priests of Mexitli could not restrain their anger against that 
nation, which once had been their masters. They meditated a terrible ven- 
geance. They persuaded the King of Colhuacan to confide to them his 
only daughter to be educated in the temple of Mexitli, that after her death 
she might be adored as the mother of the protecting god of the Aztecs. 
They said that the God himself had so ordered by the mouth of his image. 
The credulous king brought his daughter, and accompanied her into the 
gloomy enclosure of the temple. There the priest separated the father arid 
child, and a tumult was heard in the sanctuary. The father could dis- 
tinguish the cries of his daughter ; a censor was placed in his hand, and he 
was told to light the copal it contained. By the flickering blaze which 
rose from it, he saw his daughter hfeless and gory, bound to a stake. He 
lost immediately his reason, which he never regained. He could not re- 



42 MEXICO. 

venpfo liimseir, and the Acoi.urF.s wero afraid to enter into a contest with a 
people who struck terror, hy sucli barbarity, into the minds of all their 
enemies. The murdered girl was placed among the Aztecan divinities, 
and called Tetcionan, mother of the gods, or Tocitzin, our grandmother, 
a goddess we must not confound with Eve or the serpent's wife, called 

TONANTZIN." 

Ill a short time they began to devour the bodies of their victims. 
Whatever may have been the origin of human sacrifices atnong 
the Aztecs, this abominable custom originated, not in bestial ferocity 
but from religious superstition. The Mexicans regarded the sojourn 
of man upon earth as an expiation and period of probation. Every 
doginaof their religion shows they believed all beings on earth doomed 
to languish, and to be redeemed, as St. Paul says. They were satis- 
fied that the divinity is appeased by blood. Blood, they thought, 
satisfies and turns away wrath. Thus it was that they preserved as 
a religious ceremony, what in its origin had been an horrible revenge 
on the King of Coi.huacan. Solis, in his Conqiiest of Mexico^ 
places this explanation of the origin of human sacrifices in the mouth 
of a venerable Tlascalan Cacique, Magiscatzin {called by Mr. 
Prescott, Maxixca). In an interview with Cortez, this chief said 
his countrymen could not conceive of any efficacious sacrifice other 
than the death of one individual for the good of his fellows. ' 

This religious idea of the Mexicans relative to the efficacy of blood 
shed upon the altars was common to them and to the rest of antiquity. 
All mankind, civilized and savage, before the coming of Christ, in the 
spilling of blood expected to find redemption, because blood, the 
source of life, appeared to them the most agreeable offering to the 
enraged gods. Until the era of Christianity, the blood of man was 
everywhere shed as ati expiation of the anger of the gods, in spite of 
the protestations of reason and humanity. Generally, but not uni- 
versally, the blood of man was replaced by that of animals. It has 
been remarked that in all the Mosaic ceremonies there is not a single 
one of which the oblation of blood is not a necessary item. Even 
Christianity, which forbids the effusion of blood, has preserved in 
what Dc IMaistre calls the doctrine of substitution, a recognition of 
this old idea. The sins of our fathers and of ourselves are washed 
away by an expiation of blood. For the absolution of the world from 
the original sin, a baptism of blood was required. The most learned 
doctors of the church teach that " in the immolation of Christ the altar 
was on Calvary, but the blood of the victim was poured forth on the 
universe." This was said by Origen, who did not wish his words to be 
taken in a purely metaphorical sense, but with reference to a mysteri- 



MEXICO. 43 

ous accomplishment of all that he had expressed. Once, however, the 
blood of God was shed, and dispensed wiih that of any other host, 
and now our temples are unsullied by any earthly victim. It may 
be moreover noticed that the sacrifice of the Redeemer was not once 
for all, but is perpetual; that the mass is not a simple commemoration, 
and that the blood of Christ is a daily offering. 

From the experience of the world it is easy to see that as De 
Maistre has said, the human sacrifices of the Mexicans, and of 
people of ancient and modern times, who were strangers to Chris- 
tianity, had their origin in the universal conscience of the human 
race, and in a truth whose purity was forgotten and unappreciated. 

Religious causes alone can fully account for the rigor of the penal 
code of the Mexicans, for the idea of enforcing obedience by the 
influence of fear alone, is insufficient to explain it. The Mexicans 
thought, as Cesar represents the Druids to have imagined, that the 
punishment of crime was pleasant to the gods. 

In vindication of these customs we must say that human sacri- 
fices were adopted in Mexico, only after great resistance. The 
adjoining tribes conceived the greatest horror of the Aztecs. At a 
later day the great King Nezahualcoyotl contended for a long 
time against the inclination his subjects had conceived for these 
butcheries, and attempted to lead them back to the pure faith of the 
ToLTEcs. But as no children were born to him by the wife he 
had taken from the old lord of Tepechpan, the priests persuaded 
him it was because of the anger of the gods, who were indignant that • 
no blood was shed upon their altars, so that at last he yielded. The 
blood of man was again offered to the gods, though the expected heir 
came not, so that he cried out " These idols of wood and stone can 
neither hear nor feel ; it is impossible that they are the lords of earth 
and of man its master. There is an unknown omnipotent and invi- 
sible God, Creator of all things, who alone can sustain me in the 
trouble and anguish I suffer." He retired to the gardens of Tijzcot- 
ziNGo, and passed forty days in fasting and prayer, and in offering 
to the gods incense of copal and aromatic herbs. His v/ishes were 
granted. Then avowing openly antipathy to these bloody sacrifices, 
he erected a temple to the God we have referred to, with this inscrip- 
tion, " To THE UNKNOWN GoD, THE Cause OF CAUSES," aud forbade 
human and even animal oblations in the temples. After his death, 
which took place in 1470, a half century before the conquest, the 
temples of the kingdom of Tezcuco again were befouled with blood, 
almost equally with those of the Aztecs. 

Mr. Prescott, who has little taste for theological discussions, has 



44 MEXICO.' 

assigned purely human motives to the origin of tlie Mexican sacri- 
fices. I have aheudy declared \v\ml, according to the cotemporary 
historians of tlie conquest, I believe to be the real cause. But Mr. 
Preseott's assertion that every act of man has a human origin, yet 
exists. The policy of the emperors and the ambition of the sacer- 
dotal officers, both were advanced by these sacrifices. All earthly 
powers love to inspire fear; this inclination they cannot overcome. 
Fear inculcates obedience, which is the first demand of government; 
but in proportion as governments reap advantage from this axiom, 
they wish to extend its influence, and after, instead of respectful fear, 
have recourse to that of vague apprehension. Beyond the influence of 
European civilization we have constant evidence of this, and the spec- 
tacle is not unknown in the bosom of our own institutions. The exe- 
crable sacrifices of the Aztecs were not only the results of a sincere 
religious belief, as everything goes to show, in the minds of the princes 
and priests, but were, moreover, necessary to the maintenance of 
their authority. As has been remarked of the gladiatorial spectacles 
of the Romans, the sight of blood nourished the military energy of 
the people, and counterbalanced the influence of art and luxury 
which tended to enervate them. These sacrifices increased the 
chances of the Aztecan emperor to keep alive the energy of the 
army required to overawe his subject provinces. Whether it be the 
consequence of superstition, or of frightful policy, in proportion as 
the empire was enlarged, human sacrifices became more numerous; 
never were there so many sacrifices as under the reign of the last 
Montezuma, who continually increased the number of his victims. 
The companions of Cortez had patience and nerve enough to count 
the skulls arranged as trophies in the enclosure of one of the temples, 
in which they found 13G,000. The moderate computations say that 
at the era of the conquest, 20,000 a year were sacrificed. At the 
inauguration of the great temple of the god Huitzilopotchli, at 
Mexico, in 1486, thirty-three years before the conquest, 70,000 
victims, collected from every portion of the empire during many 
years, were sacrificed at one time. This butchery continued without 
ceasing for many days. The procession of victims was miles in 
length. 

The victims were criminals and rebels; when a ciiy had broken 
its faith to the emperor, it was ordered to surrender as victims a 
certain number of men, women, and children. But war was princi- 
pally depended on to supply victims. At an interview with Cortez, 
the emperor, in reply to a question of ^/ Conguisiado?', said that the 
reason why he did not make peace with the Tlascalans, who were 



-MEXICO. * 45 

willing to recognize his authority, was, that he knew not whither 
else to send his army for victims to the gods. 

But all captives were not devoted to slaughter. Th*e Mexicans 
had a great respect for personal courage, and they offered to the 
bravest of their prisoners a chance of safety. 

" In the center of every city were circular edifices of brick or stone, 
about ten feet high. Steps led to the top of them, which were circular . 
platforms, in the center of which were stones, in the center of each of which 
was an orifice. After certain ceremonies, the prisoner was placed on the 
platform, and attached by a cord around the ankle to this center stone. 
A sword and buckler were given him, and his captor advanced to attack 
him. Were he a second time successful, his courage was considered as 
tested, and he received an acknowledgment of it. If the prisoner were 
successful against his captor and six others, he was liberated, and all that 
he had lost in war restored to him. It happened once that a king of a 
town called Huecicingua (Huexotzingo), in a contest with the lord of a 
neighboring city named Tula, advanced so far in the midst of his enemies 
that his own men could not keep pace with him. He performed feats of 
great prowess, but the enemy took him a prisoner to their own town. They 
celebrated their usual feast, and placed him on the platform, where seven 
men in succession advanced to attack him, each of whom he overcame. 
The inhabitants of Huexotzingo, who had witnessed his valor, thought that 
should they liberate him they would have no future peace. They there- 
fore resolved to kill him. They did so, but were ever afterwards con- 
demned as disloyal traitors, because they had violated the established 
custom regarding captive chiefs." 

Sprung from notions whose religious faith was identical, the vic- 
tims submitted to their fate without murmurs. The populace looked 
on them as messengers sent to the deity, who received them kindly 
as sufferers in his name; oft besought them to. intercede in its be- 
half with the gods, and remind them of what it wished for. Every 
one uttered to them his prayer, thus : " Since you go to the presence 
of God, beseech him to hearken to my prayer." They were richly 
dressed, and loaded with presents before their immolation. In the 
temple the captive partook of the festival and dance, and at the mo- 
ment of his death the most important request to the gods was im- 
pressed upon his memory. 

In the conquests of the Mexicans we meet with, even by the side 
of these frightful reservations for the altars of the gods, many traits of 
clemency. The history of the gradual increase of the Aztecan em- 
pire by Tezozomoc, recently published by M. Ternaux, proves them 
not to h9.ve been pitiless conquerors. Sometimes they disguised 
their generosity in the most ingenious manner, as was afterward done 
by the barbarous enemies of the Roman Empire, and the bandit chiefs 
of the middle ages. I take one example from the annals of Tezo- 
zomoc. It relates to the Emperor Axayacatl, the father of Monts- 



46 MEXICO. 

zuMA, after the assault of the city of Tlatclolco, towards its old men, 
women and children. The warriors of Tlatelolco had acted with 
much arrogance : 

"Axayacatland the principal Mexican chiefs went then to look for the old 
men, women and children, whom tliey found concealed among the rushes. 
A large part of them were in the water up to their waists or even the chin. 
He said to them, ' You women, before you leave the water, must imitate the 
cry of the water-fowl as a testimony of respect to me.' The old women 
then began to imitate the cry of one kind of fowl, and young ones of another 
called cuachil or yacatzintli, so that one might almost fancy the water was 
hlled with birds of that kind. Axayacatl then bade them come out of the 
water and set them at liberty." 

In spite of the existence of these sacrifices, some traits exhibiting a 
very humane sentiment, were found in the religion of the Mexicans. 
In their idea of the future were contained three conditions of exist- 
ence, which may be expressed by our Paradise, purgatory and hell, 
but the latter, as they conceived it, was free from physical torment ; 
moral pain was its only pnnishment. The damned were given up 
to their own remorse, in the bosom of eternal darkness, while the 
people, who had so exalted and correct an idea of the future life, 
surrendered themselves, in the name of religion, to the most hideous 
butcheries in this stage of existence. The funeral pile of other reli- 
gions conceals the victim in clouds of smoke ; here the offering was 
an effusion of blood ; blood was poured forth prodigally, and paraded 
in the face of heaven, before an immense crowd. The victim was 
led by priests in solemn procession to the sound of music and spiritual 
liymns, and made to ascend the steps of the pyramid of the temple, 
and pass around the circumference of each of the terraces or stories 
into which it was divided. Above all stood the sacrificial stone be- 
tween two altars, on which burned by day and night the holy fire, 
before a tower containing the statue of the god. The people at a 
distance stood in profound silence and in deep contemplation. At 
length, after long prayers, the victim, was extended on the sacrificial 
stone. The priest, taking off the floating black robe, put on one of 
scarlet, and took into his hand a knife of ilzli, with which he opened 
the breast of the victim, and tore out the reeking heart. He sprinkled 
with blood the statues of the god, and letting the blood flow on the 
earth around him, kneaded with it flour of the maize. Yet the persons 
who participated in these horrible sacrifices were earnestly devoted 
to the cultivation of flowers. These were the exhibitions which four 
times a day were enacted before persons who passed the greater part 
of their time inhaling a perfumed air, on the banks of their beautiful 
lake, or the fairy islands which floated on its bosom. 



MEXICO. '47 

I 

Many circumstances increase the astonishment caused by these 
practices, and compel us to think that, as we have said, they proceeded 
from the doctrine of expiation, interpreted with frightful atrocity. 
Fear is manyfold more barbarous than courage. Mingled with this 
bloody ceremonial, the Aztecan worship presented many traits of the 
purest innocence, which recall to us the worship of the Most High, 
by the sinless Abel. It abounded in processions intermingled with 
songs and dances, where the youth of both sexes, in the gayest dresses, 
exhibited their grace and light-heartedness. Young girls and children, 
with their brows bound round with flowers, made offerings of ihe pro- 
duce of the earth, the first fruits of the season, which were placed on 
the altars redolent with perfumes. The victims offered in conjunction 
with fruits, were usually callow birds. These were the ancient sacri- 
fices of the ToLTECs, on which the Aztecs had engrafted their sterner 
rites. Many of the former remained uncontaminated by the impres- 
sion of the bloody hand of their successors, and contrasted strongly 
with the bloody imaginations of the Aztecs. < 

These inventions, so awful and mystic in their suggestions, were 
prepared with much pomp and art. Each of these sacrifices was 
a drama, descriptive of some passage in the career of the God to 
whom they were consecrated, and conveyed some moral lesson. 
Among others, though in this age the human mind would be revolted 
at some of its features, was the festival of the new fire, a description, 
of which none can read without a lively impression of its grandeur, 
splendor, and I had almost written the grace which characterized it. 
A yet more striking example is that of the god Tezcatlipoca, the 
generator of the universe, and soul of the world. 

According to the cosmogony of the Aztecs, the world had been 
four times destroyed. They expected yet another catastrophe at the 
termination of one of the cycles of fifty-two years, when all things, 
even the sun itself, would vanish. At the termination of the cycle, 
which, like the year, ended with the winter solstice, they celebrated 
a festival commemorative of the four occasions of the ruin of the 
world, and as a sort of prophecy of the fifth cataclysm of the human 
race, when the stars, without excepting the great focus of light and 
heat, should grow dimmer in consequence of the divine wrath. 
The five unlucky days at the close of the year were surrendered 
to manifestations of despair. The images of the gods, which were 
the ornaments and protection of their houses, like the ancient lares, 
were broken. The sacred fires which burned on the pyramids of 
each TEocALLi, were extinguished. The domestic hearth was left un- 
kindled, and personal appearance universally neglected. Everything 



48 f MEXICO. 

wore the impression of despair in expectation of the descent to 
earth of the destroying spirits. 

On the evening of the fifth day, the priests taking the ornaments 
from the statues of their gods, marched in procession to a moun- 
tain, about two leagues distant, taking with them the noblest victim 
in their power. On the top of the mountain they awaited in silence 
the moment of midnight; when the constellation of the Pleiades, 
which was a prominent object in their astronomy, approached the 
zenith, then the victim was sacrificed. By rapid attrition pieces 
of wood placed above his heaving bosom, were lighted. This was 
the new fire, with which the funeral pile was lighted, and the body 
of the victim consumed. As soon as the flames of the pile were seen, 
cries of joy and triumph rose from the neighboring villages, from the 
temples and roofs of the houses, whence the eyes of an entire nation 
were directed with anxiety to the bursting forth of the signal of safety. 
From the funeral pile, couriers sped with rapidity bearing burning 
torches to distribute the new fire which soon shone on a thousand 
altars and hearths. In a short lime after, the rising sun declared that 
the gods were compassionate to man, and that for yet another cycle, 
the human race need fear no destruction; but that when the new 
cycle should have expired they would be destroyed, if in the interim, 
they were not faithful to the law prescribed by the gods. The twelve 
or thirteen intercalary days which intervened were consecrated to 
festivals. Houses were repaired, and order everywhere restored ; 
the whole people in new clothing gave thanks to the divinities. 

The festival of the god Tezcatlipoca was of a different character. 
In the Aztecan mythology, he was represented as a being of perfect 
beauty and eternal youth. A year before it occurred, the most beau- 
tiful of all the captives was selected without a single corporeal defect 
or a scar. From that day he was treated as the representative of the 
god and priests, appointed to instruct him how to conduct himself 
with grace and dignity. He was magnificently clothed, and lived in 
the midst of elegance and splendor. His steps were among parterres 
of flowers, and he breathed the air of luxurious perfumes. When 
he walked abroad, which he was freely permitted to do, he was at- 
tended by pages adorned with royal magnificence. In the public 
places through which he often passed, he paused from time to time to 
play any melody which pleased him. On which occasions the crowd 
prostrated itself before him, as if he were the divine source of life. 
He led an existence of luxury and enervation, until within one 
month of the festival. At that time four beautiful virgins were 
brought to him, to whom the names of the most powerful female 



MEXICO. 49 

divinities were given. This montii he passed in luxury of sumptuous 
banquets, which were partaken of by his beautiful mistresses and 
the principal personages of the state, who appeared to contend with 
each other in offering to him honors due seemingly to none but the 
gods. 

But the day of sacrifice came ; pleasure vanished, and he bade 
farewell to his beautiful companions. One of the imperial barges 
bore him across the lake to the base of a pyramid, consecrated to the 
god. The whole nation surrounded him. He slowly ascended the 
steps of the teocalli, turning, as was the custom, from time to time, 
towards the crowd. At every platform he cast off a portion of his 
glittering decorations, or broke the musical instruments on which he 
executed the sweetest melodies. At the to^ of the pyramid he was 
received by six priests, five of whom were clad in robes of black, 
with their hair floating in the wind. The sacrifice was performed, 
and the heart of the victim, exposed to the sun, was placed at the 
feet of the statue of the god. Then, from these ceremonies of terror 
and awe, the priests drew solemn admonitions to the people. Such, 
said they, was the fate of man, on whom all things in early life ap- 
peared to smile, and who afterward dies overpowered with grief and 
disaster ; admonishing them that a single step only not rarely inter- 
venes between the most brilliant prosperity and /disaster of the 
darkest hue. 



VIII.— OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 

After these details about human sacrifices, the relative position 
of the priesthood in Mexican society may be comprehended, and the 
influence they exerted, understood. When such honors are required 
by the gods, their servants, the organs of communication with the 
populace, cannot be contemned. 

The Mexican clergy was numerous, rich and powerful, so that 
in the great temple of Mexico, the place of the worship of all the 
gods, in which Cortez found forty sanctuaries, five thousand priests 
were assembled. To every temple a glebe-land was assigned for 
the support of the priests, and the maintenance of its peculiar worship. 
Their lands were leased out to tenants with the liberality which cha- 
racterized the monastic proprietors of the soil of France and Spain of 
that era. By degrees the greater portion of the soil of Mexico 
passed into the hands of the priesthood ; the superstition of the em- 
perors or their mistaken policy, induced them to favor the aggrand- 



50 MEXICO, 

izemciit of the ecclesiastical domains. Under the last Montezuma, 
the territorial wealth of the clergy was immense. The gifts of the 
faithful added yet fariher to tlieir opulence. But in spite of this, the 
Mexican clergy was sober; the priests lived within the temples, 
praying frequently, practising fasts and submitting to llagellation 
daily. They mingled with the world, not to partake of its pleasures, 
but to secure their own influence. Relative to the celibacy of the 
priests, there are many contradictory accounts. Cortez expressly says 
"the priests are unmarried, and have no intercourse with women." 
It seems probable that men who subjected the mass of the commu- 
nity to such severe ordeals, must have made to its prejudices some 
sacrifices. But Mr. Prescott thinks otherwise. May it not be that a 
portion only of the clergy was restricted to the observation of so 
severe a requisition? This explanation of Peter of Ghent seems to 
explain all contradictions. Of the excess of their revenues they gave 
the most liberal alms conceivable, so that the prodigality of the 
Spanish convents almost is recalled to us. But, like the Monks of the 
Peninsula, they seem to have been disposed to encourage fanaticism, 
or at least to tolerate it. The necessity of labor appears to be the 
basis of all the injunctions of the liberty of the Aztecs. 

They had engrossed the monopoly of education, and consequently 
received into their temples the children of the nobles and of the 
middle classes ; the priests educating the boys, and the female serv- 
ants of the gods, the girls. The children of chiefs remained under 
their control as long as they were unmarried, and until then they 
were designated by their long hair. Their education had many gra- 
dations, but all had a religious tendency. The girls were in their 
hours of leisure occupied iu preparing ornaments for the altars and 
statues of the gods, the boys in nursing the holy fires and singing 
like our choristers, besides being charged with the cultivation of the 
flowers and the preparation of garlands, which were so frequently 
used in their oblations. They were initiated in the secrets of sci- 
ence — to read and write in the hieroglyphical characters. In schools 
of the higher order they were taught astronomy and astrology, and 
made familiar with the principles of government. The regulation 
of the schools was extremely strict. Falsehood was forbidden, and if 
a child persisted in it and could not be reformed, its lip was cloven. 
Manners were protected with the greatest severity. 

After having sufficiently hardened the hearts of the youth, the 
Mexican priesthood thrust them into society, as an additional secu- 
rity of their own influence. 

The Sacerdotal order was presided over by two priests, who were 



MEXICO. 51 

chosen from the body of the clergy by the prince and his chief nobles. 
This dignity was conferred on capacity, without reference to birth. 
Next to the sovereign the two high priests took precedence of all the 
officials of the state, and were consulted in all affairs of importance. 



IX. OF THE ORIGIN OF MEXICAN CIVILIZATION. 

Now we can ask ourselves a question: 

Whence did the civilization of Mexicans originate ? We cannot 
answer with any certainty. About the end of the twelfth century 
many tribes of the same family came from the north, established 
themselves in the beautiful vale of Mexico, known even now by its 
old name Anahuac. These were the Chichimeques, a barbarous 
race, and subsequently the Nahucetlaqtjes in seven distinct tribes, 
among which were the Acolhues or people of Tezcuco, the Mexi- 
cans proper or Aztecs, the inhabitants of Tlascala, of Chalco, of 
XocHiAciLco and the Tepaniques. The mysterious place whence 
they emanated was called by the Mexicans Aztlan, and was far 
from Tenochtitlan in the direction of the north-west. Their pil- 
grimage was long and dangerous, and marked by many vicissitudes. 
It had been interrupted by many pauses, one of which is probably 
marked by the ruins on the Rio Gila, known as the Casas Grandes 
(great houses). But at length they paused when they had met with 
the sign the oracle had taught them to expect, which was an eagle 
perched on the top of a nopal rising from the bosom of the waves, 
and holding in its beak a serpent.* Here they founded their city of 
Tenochtitlan, which afterwards was known as Mexico, and one of the 
most beautiful in the world. We are told that on the shores of Nootka 
Sound, and in the country between the fiftieth and sixtieth degrees of 
latitude, tribes are found with an idiom closely resembling the ancient 
Mexican tongue. The bands which invaded the Mexican table land 
in the twelfth c6ntury, found it in the possession of races already pos- 
sessed of many of the attributes of civilization, who were the heirs, 
though not immediate ones, of the Toltecs, a gentle, industrious, 
and partially civilized people, who, as far as we can learn, had made 
their appearance in Anahuac about the year of our era 648, but who, 
• four centuries afterwards, in 1051, having been decimated by the 
plague and famine, had emigrated yet farther south, and probably 
founded the cities of Mitla, Uxmal, and Palenque, whose ruins 

* Now the arms of the Mexican Republic. 



52 MEXICO. 

are yet found in Yucatan, having survived tlie injuries of lime and 
decay; consequent on the rank vegetation of a tropical clime. The 
ToLTEcs had commemorated their existence by vast buildings. To 
them must be attributed the group of pyramids at Saint John of Teo- 
TiHUACAN, which arc of clay with a revetment of stone, similar to 
those at Sackarah in Upper Egypt; and even,hke them, divided into 
stories. Like the pyramids of Egypt, which, from the statues in them, 
we know were appropriated to religious purposes, those of Teotihua- 
CAN faced towards the cardinal points. They were also the architects 
of the great pyramid of Cholula, the sanctuary of Quetzalcoalt, 
the god of the air, on the summit of which even now the traveler may 
see a sanctuary overshadowed by trees and attended by an Indian 
monk. 

According to appearances, we must refer to the Toltecs the ma- 
jority of the useful arts and sciences known to the Aztecs. 

We may think that Asia, the common mother of the civilization 
of the Old World, contributed its part to Mexican cultivation, or at 
least furnished contingent to the stock of religious ideas and sciences 
in Anahuac. Traditions which, as has been seen, bear a close resem- 
blance to our biblical creed, appear to have reached them. The 
communication between America and Asia in the north-west is very 
practicable. Behring's Strait, which separates the two continents at 
the sixty-sixth parallel, is less in width than an hundred miles; and 
even in this narrow channel are some islands which might serve as 
resting-places. Without having proceeded as far north as this lati- 
tude, where in Asia are only icy deserts and savage tribes, it would 
be easy to pass in a canoe from Ivamschatka, or even Japan, by way 
of the Kourile Isles, to the American shore ; passing from one island to 
the other of the Aleutian group, and not remain at any one time more 
than forty-eight hours on the water. We may, moreover, remark, 
that a long chain of islands extends, though with greater intervening 
distances, from China to America. For while the Aleutian islands 
stretch out from America to Kamschatka, between the latter country 
and China, we find first Formosa, then the Leo-Keo group, the Ja- 
panese islands and the Kouriles. At that time, when the spirit of 
Chinese government tended rather to expansion than as now to isola- 
lation, commerce and religious propagandism may have induced 
men to cross this expanse of five thousand miles by a voyaging some* 
times on the bosom of the deep, and again by land marches across 
the links of the Archipelago uniting Asia and the New World. Two 
hundred years before our era, the Chinese annals speak of the mysti- 
cal expedition of Thsin-Chi-Houang-Ti, who sailed over the eastern 



MEXICO.^ 53 

seas ill search of an elixir to render certain the immortality of the 
soul. These commercial and maritime nations at that time used the 
mariner's compass, and it is not difficult to imagine they may have 
discovered the continent of America. To a civilized people, a voy- 
age to the New World was by no means a formidable undertaking, 
compared with the deeds of many savage tribes on the same element. 
For instance, a voyage must have been made over the sea from New 
Zealand to Tahiti, if we pay any attention to the analogy of customs 
and language, and which are two thousand miles apart. 

The anatomical similarity between the inhabitants of the farthest 
east and the indigenes of America is so close, that Humboldt has 
said: "We must confess that no races so closely resemble each other 
as the Americans, Mongols, Mantchous, and Malays." But this ar- 
gument by no means suffices to show, that the inhabitants of America 
proceeded from Asia. Science does not contradict the unity of the 
human race according to the biblical tradition ; and as soon as that 
is admitted, it follows almost necessarily that contiguity of location, 
and similarity of condition must superinduce similarity of conforma- 
tion, as in the case of the vegetable productions of two neighboring 
islands or countries ; a strong instance of which is afforded by the 
Fauna and Sylvae of the two shores of Behring's Straits. But in the 
scientific ideas of the Mexicans, we find some points of identity with 
the condition of art in Asia, which compel us to admit contact to have 
ensued between the inhabitants of the two continents. I shall quote 
one example, which is perhaps the most striking instance to be met 
with : 

The Aztecs expressed the days of their calendar by the figure of 
certain animals. People of Mongol origin express by animals the 
signs of the zodiac. Of the twelve beasts adopted in Asia for this pur- 
pose, four are found in the Mexican calendar. Three others did not 
exist in Anahuac, though similar ones did, by which the correspond- 
ing signs were expressed ; the five other Mongol characters had no 
similar ones, or anything identical in Mexico, and for them, therefore, 
altogether different animals were substituted. And we must not for- 
get that the Mongol signs were also used to indicate the years of the 
series which composed their cycles, and also to represent the days, 
months, and hours. In conclusion, the signs of the Aztecan calendar, 
like the Mongol, were applied to astrological purposes, whence per- 
haps originated their similarity.* 

* Among the Mongols, there are the leopard, crocodile, and chicken, replaced 
in the Mexican calendar by the Ocelotl lizard and eagle ; the five other signs are 

4 



54 MEXICO. 

The lunar calendar of the Hindoos, constructed of yet more arbi- 
trary signs, strongly corresponds with that of tiie Aztecs. If we do 
not recognize these circumstances as evidences of a communication 
between tlie two continents, we must have a very profound respect 
for the majesty of chance, as a philosophic king has said. 

The inhabitants of the New World then must have had some com- 
munication with the civilized nations of Asia; some of the elements 
of Mexican art show this very clearly, but it would be more than 
rash to consider Mexican civilization as an offshoot from that of 
Asia. All our institutions in Europe are hneally descended from 
those of Greece and Rome. Without the assistance of philology, 
technology and the study of religion and manners, history would 
suffice to teach us this. By means of conquest or colonization we 
are all descended from the Greeks and Romans, and among us we 
find without any difficulty the traces of a yet more venerable origin. 
Between Asia and Mexico there are no such links. In civilization, 
descent is recognized by striking similitudes in every-day affairs. 
And the Mexicans brought from Asia neither the horse, the ox, the 
sheep, camel, nor the grain manufactured into bread. Asiatic popu- 
lation is everywhere nourished by rice, American by maize. Their 
numerical system and written characters bore no resemblance to 
those of Asia ; as yet there have been discovered no links connecting 
together the languages of the two continents. Had Mexico been 
colonized from xAsia, we could not but find countless evidences of the 
fact. The Chinese and Japanese have regular histories and annals, 
in which, in spite of what Be. Gidgnes says, we find no commemo- 
ration of the discovery of a continent or of intercourse with America. 
Neither did there exist in America any recollection of China or of 
India. The Mexicans, therefore, were neither descendants, colonists 
nor the pupils of Asia. The communication between Anahuac and 
the eastern shore of the other continents was confined to the isolated , 
visits of a few persons, who never returned to their home, from 
whom the Mexicans derived some notions of astrology and traditions 
of cosmogony. We must believe that all the information the Mexi- 
cans ever received from the other hemisphere was second hand and 
already corrupted. 

We are inclined, if we credit mere tradition, to think that the Mexi- 
cans received the seed of their civilization from the European, rather 
than the Asiatic shore of this continent. In the well established 

the ox, horse, sheep and hog. The four common to both, are the hare, snake, ape 
and dog. 



MEXICO. 55 

empires, found by the Spaniards in the New World, on the three 
table-lands of Mexico, Peru and Cundinamarca, tradition represents 
their ancestors to have come from the East. In Mexico, Quetzal- 
coATL, in Cundinamarca Bochica, and in Peru Mango Capac, came 
from beyond the mountains and seas, where the sun rises; and the 
accounts of their personal appearance handed down by tradition cor- 
respond more correctly with the Caucasian than with any other race. 

But the safest conjecture of all is, that Mexican civilization was 
autochthon. The red man found in himself the material of his 
religious, .social and political edifice. Lofty minds, in their own 
recesses, or by means of one of those divine revelations, to which all 
who wish to trace back the origin of civilization, must attribute the 
first cause of every amelioration of the condition of mankind, had 
pointed out to their fellows the first steps in the march onwards. 
Though striking analogies, which have been pointed out in favor of 
many systems, to show that Mexican civilization arose in the Old 
World, may exist, and almost persuade us that it could have no other 
origin ; though pyramids of similar colossal character exist in both 
hemispheres ; will it not be well to suppose that we must attribute 
them and all similar works to the fact, that the produce of man's 
labor in the two worlds is similar as is his person, and, to ask our- 
selves if it would not seem strange, that, in similar relative epochs, in 
identical climates, though separated by expanses of ocean, there 
should not be many traits of similarity ?* 

To prove how easily the mind may be mistaken in the consequences 
drawn from similarity between the ancient civilization of America, 
and that of the other continent, Mr. Prescott remarks that in the 
funeral ceremonies of the Aztecs, we find much that recalls to us the 
customs of Catholic nations, as well as of Mohammedans, Tartars, 
and those of Greece and Rome. Must we from this fact decide that 
Aztec AN civilization is to be traced back to all of these nations? Is it 

* Among these systems we must not forget that of Lord Kingsborough, who at- 
tempts to prove that Mexican civilization sprang directly from the Jews. To sup- 
port this conjecture many plausible circumstances may be advanced; but none 
possessing the elements of certainty, or at all as probable as that system which 
attributes it to intercourse across Behring's Straits. If this system has convinced 
no one, it has yet been the cause of a vast historical and literary monument 
Lord Kingsborough published facsimiles of all the Aztecan manuscripts known 
to exist, and drawings of many of the ruins of central America — in combination 
with the text of the Universal History of New Spain by the Franciscan Sahagun, 
who lived long in Mexico. The luxurious liberality of which the British aris- 
tocracy is so prodigal, was strongly exemplified in this work. 



56 MEXICO.- 

not better to believe that it is mitnchthon, and indebted to none of the 
nations on either side of tiie continent, unless by a casual contact 
perhaps with both ? 

But how came European civilization to be engrafted on that of 
Mexico ? What was the character, and what the incidents of the 
conquest of Cortez ? 



PART SECOND. 



To a man of the nineteenth century, who is a legitimate descend- 
ant of the eighteenth, and who, consequently, in everything that he 
does, is but little of a devotee, an effort is necessary to understand the 
spirit that animated the Spanish conquerors of the New World. 
Men judge the morality of historical events by the ideas of their own 
age, and often, it is true, for the better, for we may flatter ourselves 
as being better initiated in our notions of eternal justice, than the 
generations that have preceded us for many centuries, and our scale 
is more exact. We are in possession of secrets which the cotempo- 
rary of those events was ignorant of; coming after him, we can 
perceive effects which he could not distinguish, and, in fine, we are 
not as he was, both judge and party. Moreover, when a man la- 
bors, not to examine the morality of actions, but simply to observe 
their distinguishing features, he regards them with the eyes of his era, 
and consequently is misled. In most instances, then, it is a panorama, 
where the objects are in a false light, because the observed is placed 
out of the proper point of view. 

Religious feelings being no longer, at the present day, the insti- 
gators of conquest, we are inclined to neglect or lessen their influence 
in past ages. We repeat against the Spaniard the decision which the 
eighteenth century, inspired by its passions, and without properly 
understanding the matter, has pronounced against him, and we be- 
lieve that the thirst for gold was the only instigator of his adventures 
in the New World. I do not pretend that the love of riches, the 
hope of great fortunes and great names were foreign to these won- 
derful expeditions; there are human motives in all human actions; 
but to the praise of our species, it is certain that always when there 
has been an exhibition of heroic qualities long sustained, man has 
obeyed noble inspirations. It is repugnant to our feelings to believe 
that cupidity alone has made heroes. 

In Cortez and his companions there was more than a simple desire 
to enrich or to win rank for themselves in the Indies. As well 



58 MEXICO. 

might we say that when France, in 178,0, rose up in tlie cause of 
hberiy, the subHme enthusiasm which filled the nation, and which 
gave it, during twenty-live years, so glorious a career, was not inspired 
by a profound feeHiig for tlie rights of the human race, and that the 
prodigies with which our cotmtry astonished the world during a 
quarter of a century, proceeded simply from a foolish jealousy on the 
part of the citizen of the advantages of the noble. 

The monuments of history are sulficicntly numerous and varied, 
to give us all the light we desire on this subject. They show us that 
the expeditions of the Spaniards to the New World, were made 
under the auspices of religious feeling. That with this sentiment 
were connected ideas of interest and ambition, I do not hesitate to 
acknowledge, any more than I would to grant that there are in man 
two instincts, or that;^the body is united to a soul. I will not go back 
to Columbus, who set sail in the hope of meeting and converting the 
grand Khan, and who, when he had seen the gold of the New World, 
sought for it only to assist in the expenses of a new crusade in the 
Holy Land ; though all this did not prevent him from attaching great 
value to his title of Admiral of Castile, and to the material advantages 
attached to that title. But let us turn now to Cortez and Mexico. 
Cortez, like Columbus, like all the Spaniards of that age, who achieved 
the subjugation of the Moors, had in his soul an active and enduring 
faith. Imaginations were excited in the Peninsula. It was faith 
that had given a band of scattered cavaliers in the Asturias power 
to triumph over mighty caliphs. What could a man not achieve, 
when he fought for his faith? The natural religious ardor of that 
age was joined to everything which could inflame the sacred fire of 
patriotism. To make the infidel submit ; to establish the cross in 
countries where the sign of redemption was not known, was the 
sovereign ambition, the supreme glory, the happiness without parallel 
of the youth who had sprung from the soil on which trod the con- 
querors of Grenada and of Cordova. An expedition to the New World 
was a crusade. War against the Indians, from the fact that they were 
infidels, was a holy war. To force them to confess the faith was an 
incomparable merit. For this prize it was of little importance 
whether the actor had been unbridled in his passions, whether he had 
been licentious, avaracious, or blood-thirsty; every sin was wiped 
out by so good a work, and he went guiltless to Heaven. Against 
the infidel (and each disbeliever was one) every means was lawful, 
provided you could force him to be baptized. Thus thought the 
many, though some of the chiefs were more enlightened and more 
humane. 



MEXICO. 59 

Cortez, like all men who are really great, was a man of his own 
age. He partook, in different degrees, as he had courage or faith, of 
the illusions or prejudices of his time. His chaplain, Goniara, has 
preserved to us the address that he made to his troops, in a review at 
Cape San Antonio, at the momentof finally leaving the island of Cuba. 
He finished by these words — " Though they were few, they had with 
them the Almighty God, who never had abandoned the Spaniard in 
his struggles with the infidel. What matter the number of the 
enemy, provided they fought under the banner of the cross?" This 
conviction never left him, he maintained it always in presence of his 
companions ; a good reason why they triumphed. The best means 
by which a man can accomplish any deed, however difficult it may 
be, is to persuade himself that he cannot fail. Cortez was a man of 
wonderful sagacity, of extreme political skill, unequaled courage, 
untiring vigilance, and of consummate prudence ; his daring was 
excessive. He possessed, in a high degree, self-command, a proof of 
his fitness to command others. To all these natural gifts was joined 
an incredible good fortune ; the elements and events seemed to con- 
spire for him. But more than all this, the principal cause of his 
success was his faith. 

In the island of Cozumel, the first land made, he could with diffi- 
culty reassure the inhabitants, whom Alvarado, his lieutenant, having 
landed before him, had caused to fly by the violence used to con- 
vert them. On their refusal to renounce their idolatry, he ordered 
his men to throw the statues of their gods from the top to the bottom 
of their temple, built as those of the Mexicans, in the form of pyra- 
mids. An altar was there erected in the pagan sanctuary ; the Father 
Olmedo said mass, and the Indians, astounded that their gods had 
not stricken to the earth the strangers who had outraged their sanc- 
tuaries and their images, suffered themselves to be baptized. From 
thence they passed on to the province of Tabasco, in the peninsula of 
Yucatan, and discovered there a more numerous, more warlike, and 
more civilized people, who yet offered human sacrifices. The Indians 
refused to communicate with the expedition, and a battle ensued ; 
the combat was stubborn and bloody. 

A saint, mounted on a gray horse, was seen to descend from Hea- 
ven, and placing himself at the head of the Spanish cavaliers, led 
them to the charge. No one in the army doubted this fact ; and 
Cortez, in the account of this affair he rendered to the sovereigns of 
Castilq, said, "Your royal highnesses may rest assured that this vic- 
tory was owing less to our forces than to the will of God, for what 
could we, only four hundred in number, do against forty thousand 



60 MEXICO. 

warriors?" Terrified by the artillery and cavalry; stupefied at the 
aiulacily of this haiKlful of men, whom they looked upon as super- 
natural beings, the Indians became converted. Their conversion 
was celebrated in the following week, on Palm-Sunday, by a pomp- 
ons ceremony, and they then set sail for the Mexican provinces, 
where they were informed a mighty sovereign and chief of a people 
possessing much gold dwelt. Interviews soon took place between 
Cortez and Teutila, who governed for Montezuma the province 
now known as the district of Vera Cruz. Great etiquette was ob- 
served in their intercourse, as became the representatives of two 
mighty sovereigns, each of whom esteemed himself the greatest 
monarch of the universe. Montezuma was tormented by his anxiety 
to keep rlie Spaniards from his capital. He delayed their coming 
by informing them by his messengers, in the tone of a man accus- 
tomed to be obeyed, that it is not agreeable to him ; yet as a magnifi- 
cent and liberal prince, he loaded them with presents. These consisted 
of cotton fabrics of great beauty, of stuffs composed of feathers, (an 
article peculiar to the Mexicans, and in which they much excelled,) 
and jewels of gold and silver of great weight, and of a style equal to 
the material. He also sent them urns filled with gold dust, for Cortez 
had informed Teutila that his companions were subject to an affec- 
tion of the heart, for which gold dust was a sovereign specific. Cortez 
returned these splendid presents as well as he was able, by a helmet 
ornamented with a golden medal, representing St. George and the 
dragon, by the finest Holland shirts which he possessed, (the Mexi- 
cans were not acquainted with flax), and by many kinds of beads, 
which would appear of great value to these people who were igno- 
rant of the art of making glass. Through the exchange of these 
presents a good understanding was established ; the Indians of the 
neighborhood brought provisions in abundance, and placed themselves 
under the orders of the Spaniards to relieve all their wants. Cortez 
continued to negotiate for permission to go to Tenochtitlan (Mexico); 
but in the midst of a conference the hour of vespers sounded, and he 
imagined the moment come, to teach the Aztecs the religious law 
he desired so much to give them. By his order Father Olmedo 
commenced a sermon in which he explained the mysteries of Chris- 
tianity, and announced that the Spaniards had come to extirpate 
idolatry and establish the worship of the true God. 

He finished by distributing little images of the Virgin with Christ 
in her arms. Two interpreters, the Spaniard Aguilar, who had been 
a captive in Yucatan, and a young Indian girl named Malincho, 
who had been given to Cortez by one of the caciques of Tabasco, 



MEXICO. 61 

translated the words of the good father to the astonished Aztecs. 
From that moment all intercourse ceased. None of the natives pre- 
sented themselves at the camp ; provisions were no longer brought ; 
and the followers of Cortez, become discontented, murmured that the 
expedition should return to Cuba with the magnificent presents of 
Montezuma. 

In the meantime Cortez received a message from the chief of the 
Totonaques, who were settled around Cempoalla in the Tierra Cali- 
ente. Wearied with the demands of the Aztecs, this cacique 
asked the assistance of the wonderful strangers who launched the 
thunders, and who brought with them animals of irresistible impetu- 
osity. This cacique was powerful, and boasted of having one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand warriors under his command ; an extreme 
exaggeration, although his capital, Cempoalla, had really thirty thou- 
sand souls. To Cortez this was a revelation. This great Mexican 
empire was not then united and compact ; a skillful policy might 
enable him to make way and overthrow it. The overture of the 
cacique was accepted with friendship. They were about to march to 
Cempoalla ; yet, before commencing the journey, Cortez would 
assure himself of his personal independence. Under the pretence of 
a new organization, based on the independence which communities 
in Spain then enjoyed, he broke the bonds of apparent subordination 
which attached him to the Governor of Cuba, Velasquez. This 
revolution appeared to be nothing more than the estabhshment of a 
colony, which, by virtue of its municipal rights, selected its own offi- 
cers. Some days after, they arrived at Cempoalla amid the acclama- 
tions of the Indian population. Cortez artfully compromised the 
cacique with the Aztecs by an affront which he determined, with- 
out the apparent participation of the Spaniards, to offer to the officers 
sent to collect tribute for the emperor. He then reconciled him to a 
neighboring people, and assured him of his protection against every 
one, and at the same time undertaking to convert him. The cacique 
proposed to marry to Spanish officers eight young girls selected from 
the most distinguished families of his principality. Cortez accepted 
the proposition on condition that they should be baptized, and inti- 
mated to the cacique that he himself must become a Christian. 

The Indian wished to argue the matter, and decl-ared that he would 
resist every attempt against the images of his gods, stating that if 
even he was renderecf powerless, they would know how to avenge 
themselves; but the Spaniards were disgusted with this bloody idola- 
try, and sickened at these horrible feasts, when, at an infernal com- 
munion, they devoured their victims. They shouted with enthusiasm 



62 MEXICO. 

wlicn thoir general told them it was necessary to put an end to this ; 
that if tliey bore much longer with this infernal worship, God, who 
only could enable then:i to succeed, would desert them. They followed 
Cortez, who, sword in hand, pointed to the temples. The cacique 
called his warriors to arms, and his priests, with dishevelled locks and 
black robes stained with blood, obstructed the path of the Spaniards. 
Cortez caused the chief, the principal priests, and the most renowned 
warriors of the Totonaques to be surrounded and seized. " You are 
foolish," he exclaimed; "you have no refuge but in me; for if I 
abandon you, the hand of Montezuma will soon fall heavy on you. 
It is necessary then that ^''ou obey me, and I ordain the destruction 
of your idols." The cacique yielded to this thought, and burying his 
face in his hands, cried out to Cortez to do what he wished, but that 
the anger of the gods would be manifested against these profane 
strangers. Fifty men of Castile mounted to the summit of the pyra- 
mid, tore down the wooden idols, and rolling them into the court of 
the temple, made of them a brilliant bonfire. At this spectacle, to 
the great astonishment of the natives, the heavens were still silent. 
The sanctuary was then purified, an altar erected, and in procession 
they placed on it, an image of the Virgin, decorated with flowers. 
Many of the priests of the sanguinary gods of the Mexicans, joined 
the cortege, dressed in white robes. Father Olmedo celebrated mass, 
and addressed the audience in language which brought tears from all 
the assistants. Cortez did not only satisfy his conscience, but was 
assured of the fidelity of the people of Cempoalla. His confidence 
was doubled. He set out from Cempoalla on his rout to Mexico, not- 
withstanding the prohibition of Montezuma, taking with him 400 foot 
soldiers, 15 cavaliers, and 7 pieces of artillery. The rest of the troop, 
under the command of Escalante, who was devoted to him, he left at 
A^era Cruz, as a post of observation on the sea-coast. Thirteen 
hundred Totonaque warriors, who kept constantly increasing, and 
1000 tamanes or porters, charged with the care of the baggage, joined 
him. After the council with the people of Cempoalla, Cortez directed 
liis steps through the territory of Tlascala, inhabited by a nation who 
had maintained in its mountains, its independence against the power- 
ful Montezuma : like the Swiss, who, having thrown off the yoke, 
were in their defiles, and in the midst of their rocks, invincible against 
the heir of the Cesars, the Emperor of Germany. The Tlascalans 
were of the same origin as the Aztecs ; they spoke a dialect of the 
same language, possessed the same habits and customs, were addicted 
to the same bloody sacrifices, and were less refined : notwithstanding 
these points of resemblance, however, they detested the Aztecs with 



MEXICO. 63 

a ferocious hate ; they were kindred enemies. Cortez, in marching 
to them, had been led on by the hope of getting their assistance 
against the Mexican empire, but he had Httle dreamed of the fierce- 
ness of these mountaineers. They had refused to submit to Monte- 
zuma, because they wished to be their own masters ; what proba- 
bility was there that they would accept an unknown sovereign ? 

Here commenced for Cortez, the war of the conquest. Until then, he 
had not had an obstacle to his onward career, but five ordinary chiefs. 
It was necessary now boldly to cut loose from the Governor Velas- 
quez, whose subordinate he was, to recruit his men and provide 
supplies for them ; there were also in his little troop partisans of Velas- 
quez, whom he must intimidate or reduce, to prevent them from 
exposing the intrigue at Vera Cruz, on account of which he had cast 
ofi' his dependence on the Governor of Cuba. He had to reduce to 
obedience undisciplined men brought together from all parts ; then 
again he had to put down plots — the discontent of these adven- 
turers which he essayed to repress having engendered more than one 
rebellion. He had to induce his men to give up to their sovereign, 
without reserving anything, all the presents of Montezuma which 
they thought to be their own property ; he was obliged to ask this 
sacrifice, counting on the fact that the sight of all this gold and sil- 
ver would conciliate the court, would make it pass over the comedy^ 
performed by the municipality of Vera Cruz, and silence the emissa- 
ries of Velasquez ; and lastly, he had to quiet the murmurs which 
were produced by the news of the burning of the fleet, by which they 
were separated from their friends, and exposed — a mere handful of 
men— to the mercy of innumerable and valiant enemies. I do not add 
to these the battles he had to gain over the inhabitants of Tabasco. 
With a spirit fertile in expedients, and a rude dexterity strong in that 
resolution which is communicative ; cautious even in his daring, 
and, aided by the experience he had acquired, although young in the 
middle of an agitated life, Cortez had been able to free himself from 
all these embarrassments. It was, up to this time, an aflair of intellec- 
tual resources and moral force. But now to contend, with arms in 
their hands, against these valiant Tlascalans, who refused either to 
receive them or to allow them a passage, material force must be re- 
sorted to. What then was to be done ? Nothing was easier for the 
enemy than to put into line 50,000 proved warriors ; they were all 
ready ; their defiles were easy to guard ; their soil was covered with 
forests where ambuscades could be prepared. Local advantages 
and numbers were in their favor. Cortez, as we have before said, 
had 400 men, 15 horses, and 7 small pieces of artillery. He had also 



64 MEXICO. 

been joined, when he entered the country of the Tlascalans by 
3000 native warriors. The Tlascalans were commanded by a 
young native named Xicotencatl, as shrewd as he was courageous. 
In the first battle that was fought, Cortez remained the victor with 
the severe loss of two of his fifteen horses. Some days afterwards a 
more serious engagement took place ; the fight was continued during 
the whole day ; the artillery, the horses, and the lances, made of the 
good steel of Toledo, worked wonders, and Xicotencatl was forced 
to abandon the field,reUring, however, in good order. Cortez, whose 
little army contained many wounded men, sent to propose peace. 
Xicotencatl, at the head of his troops, answered that the road to 
Tlascala should never be open to the Spaniards unless to lead them 
to the aityr of sacrifice, and that if they remained in their camp he 
would seize them. On the 5th of September, 1519, a new battle 
was fought ; the Indians were numerous and full of resentment. 
Cortez appealed to the faith of his troop. " God is with you : God 
wishes that the cross should be planted in these beautiful regions; 
and how can this be done if we lose ground?" The two armies 
engaged. Victory was yet undecided, when one of the Indian chiefs 
who had quarreled with Xicotencatl, left the field with his men, and 
carriedoff with him anotherchief in his premeditated flight. Xicoten- 
•catl continued the battle for four hours longer, and then retreated 
without being pursued. Cortez again renewed his propositions for 
peace. The answer was a night attack. Happily Cortez had accus- 
tomed his men to be always ready ; they never quilted their arms, 
sleeping in order of battle, and guarded by vigilant sentinels. By 
good luck this night there was a moon. The Tlascalans again 
failed, and Cortez sent Indians bearing words of peace, not this time 
to the enemy, but to the city of Tlascala itself. The proposition was 
favorably received. A solemn embassy set out to find Cortez. The 
obstinate Xicotencatl retired to his camp and prepared to take his 
revenge. During this time dissatisfaction had penetrated among the 
Spaniards. They counted their dead and wounded men ; they saw 
their general prostrated by fever, and in this elevated part of the 
country, sleeping at night under the open sky, they also suffered 
from cold. They said to each other that the idea of penetrating 
to Mexico was foolish. The party of Velasquez revived, and a 
deputation of the discontented presented to the general the suffer- 
ings of the army. " It may be that nature is against us," replied 
Cortez, " but God is stronger than nature," He quoted to them the 
words of an old romance, the sentiment of which was, that it was 
better to die with glory than to live with dishonor. The disaffected 
were calmed, and a short time afterwards the people of Tlascala 



MEXICO. 65 

appeared with white flags in sign of peace, bringing with them provis- 
ions from XicoTENOATL. Joy spread through the camp. But Marina, 
who had observed these people closely, warned Cortez that this was 
only a stratagem, and that they had been sent to spy out the secrets 
of the troop. On being satisfied of the truth of this, Cortez sent 
back these emissaries to Xicotencatl with their hands cut off. This 
had been done with less justice by Cesar, at the siege of Alesia, to 
men who were not traitors. " Tell your general," said Cortez, as he 
cast them from the camp " that he may come by day or night, when he 
pleases and as he pleases, and he will learn what we are." Xicoten- 
catl was seized with consternation at the sight of his mutilated 
emissaries. These extraordinary strangers knew then how to read 
his thoughts ! He despaired of triumphing over the Spaniards, either 
by open force or by cunning, and was converted to peace. He came 
himself to assure them of its truth. A few days afterwards they set 
out together in harmony for Tlascala, where Cortez was received in 
the palace of the father of Xicotencatl, and the union between 
them was cemented. The Spaniards did not owe their success over 
the Tlascalans only to their bravery. One of the companions of 
Cortez affirmed that no one could be more courageous than these 
Indians; he frequently saw one of them defend himself against two, 
three, and four cavaliers. The superiority of the Spanish arms, their 
powder, and cannon, their admirable discipline, and ever ready vigi- 
lance, their superior tactics, and the genius of Cortez, decided their suc- 
cess. Their horses, a kind of winged monsters, alarmed the bravest of 
the Tlascalan warriors more than the elephants of Pyrrhus did the 
Romans, and exerted a great influence in the battles. Cortez had 
singularly disciplined his men. He had inspired them with his won- 
derful presence of mind, and had steeled their bodies by all kinds of 
proofs. The persevering will of a good general operates like bath- 
ing in the Styx. By a peculiar effect of temperament, whenever a 
great sentiment animates the Spaniard, he possesses military quali- 
ties which you vainly seek for elsewhere. The Englishman is cer- 
tainly very brave, but an English army deprived of the comforts of 
food and tea* is demoralized and lost. The Spaniard is above hun- 
ger, thirst, and sleep ; he can support heat or cold, and can make 
with an empty stomach, the most unheard-of marches. The soldiers 
of Cortez had- employment for eTU the resources which they possessed. 
I believe, however, that nothing sustained them in the same degree 
as the conviction that, with the cross in their hands, they were cer- 
tain of an infallible and necessary triumph. Since the expulsion of 

* ! Iranslator. 



66 MEXICO. 

the Moors, they were sure that the infidel could not resist them. 
This was what Marina told a chief of the Ccmpoallans in one of the 
battles against the Tlascalans ; and Cortez, in his addresses to his 
companions, when he recounted to them the difficulties by which 
they were surrounded, always finished by telling them that the ban- 
ner of the cross, and that alone, was sufficient to extricate them. But 
this strong and indomitable faith, which gave Cortez such power and 
success, also brought with it perils and dangers. Once, at Tlascala, 
he asked himself how he could tolerate the worship of these false 
gods around him. 

His new friends and allies, on whom he counted in his enterprise 
against Montezuma, were idolaters ; they offered up human victims, 
and eat them with great gusto. Shall these atrocious sacrileges be 
suffered to continue, and shall the cross traverse the state of Tlascala 
without purifying it from this defilement ? Happily, Father Olmedo 
moderated the ardor of the hero. <' Everything should be done at its 
proper time," said he; "let us await our opportunity;" and soon in fact 
the occasion did present itself. The Tlascalan chiefs proposed to 
Cortez and his officers to marry their daughters. Cortez answered, 
that it was impossible unless Tlascala were converted. He explained to 
them the difference of their religion from his own, and told them they 
were doomed to eternal perdition unless they left their dark ways. 
A controversy ensued, and the Tlascalan senators alledged, in the 
words of a maxim often found in the mouth of the Indians, that being 
content with their gods, they ought to defend them; that they, the 
old men of the nation, would never abjure the worship of divinities 
who had protected their young years; that this abjuration would 
bring down the anger of heaven, and excite the people, and finally, 
that they would as leave give up their liberty as iheir belief, and 
would shed the last drop of their blood in defence of both the one and 
the other. After the conference, Cortez, who could ill accommodate 
himself to obstacles, showed signs of irritation; but Father Olmedo 
renewed his prayers that he would temporize. " Patience," said he ; 
« what good will it do to violate the conscience of these people ? Sup- 
pose you have the power to overthrow their altars, the idols will re- 
main in their hearts! Let us persuade them; the work is slower, but 
it will be more sure." Alvarado and Velasquez de Leon joined their 
prayers to those of the charitable and better advised monk; Cortez 
condescended to yield the principle of religious toleration. The Span- 
iards observed publicly their religion, but no constraint was exer- 
cised towards the natives. A large cross was planted in the streets 
of Tlascala, and an altar erected, where mass was celebrated every 



MEXICO. 67 

day ; five or six young girls of the first families of the nation were bap- 
tized, and married to Spanish officers. One of them was the daugh- 
ter of the old XicoTENCATL, and sister of the young general who had 
defended the soil of his country with such courage and perseverance. 
She became the wife of Alvarado, for whom the Tlascalans en- 
tertained great admiration; and who, on account of his open and. 
pleasing manners, his alluring boldness, and his flaxen hair, which 
fell in curls over his fair face, had received the name of the sun 
(Tonatiuh). From this marriage sprung children, who afterwards 
intermarried with the most noble families of Castile. It was a happy 
circumstance for Cortez, that the prudence of Father Olmedo, and the 
probably worldly views of some of his lieutenants, had cooled the 
ardor of his proselytism; and that they were able by their advice to 
bring him back to that circumspection which was natural to him. 
He had raised a storm that would have overwhelmed his reduced 
and weakened troop ; and even if he had conquered the Tlascalans, 
which is not probable, this exhibition of brutal proselytism would 
have shut out to him the road to Mexico. The whole enterprise 
would have failed. History would have mentioned his name as that 
of a partizan, who had annihilated by his fanaticism the magnificent 
hopes excited by his first successes. How important is a moment in 
the life of a great man ! How important is good advice ! A magni- 
ficent page in history, written in imperishable characters, in place of 
one of those indifferent, fugitive and obscure notices which are the lot 
of imprudent adventurers, and which oftentimes are the only recom- 
pense of better men, in whom nature has put the material of heroes, 
but who have been unfortunate ! Cortez, once more restored to the 
path which his excellent judgment and penetration enabled him to 
retain, formed his plans of campaign. He determined to go straight 
to Mexico in spite of all opposition ; and he possessed a powerful ally 
in the inveterate antipathy entertained by the Tlascalans against 
the Aztecs. The earth was again firm under his feet, and he possessed 
the key to the weakness of the Mexican empire. What he learned 
at Tlascala, had confirmed the truth of the information given him by 
a cacique of Cempoalla, that a portion of the people in subjection felt 
the most lively hatred to their oppressors. Montezuma was detested in 
the conquered provinces, and a powerful liberator, who would offer to 
free the people from their heavy yoke, would find allies in abundance. 
At the very gates of Mexico, the conqueror knew that he would find 
friends. The Prince Ixtlixochitl, brother of Cacamatzin, the King 
of Tezcuco, and son of Nezahualpilli, who had been driven from the 
throne of Tezcuco, and reduced to an humble situation, through the 



68 MEXICO. 

influence of Montezuma, burned to revenge himself. He was dis- 
tinguished for his courage, and otTered his services to Cortez. More- 
over, at Mexico, the emperor had yielded to an afflicting perplexity. 
At bottom, generous and intelligent, this prince, after being distin- 
guished by his bravery, had given himself up to a frightful supersti- 
tion and to a bloody bigotry, to what degree we will see after- 
wards. It is difficult to judge what passed in his mind; we are too 
ignorant of the ideas of empire under which they then lived in 
Mexico; and superstition, with its follies, is one of those tortuous and 
dark labyrinths, in which it is impossible to know what course a man 
will take when environed by its complicated folds. If the ideas 
which spring from a blind superstition, associated with astrology, 
were not almost always contrary to the natural order of reason, the 
opposites of logic and good sense, we might explain the want of 
decision of Montezuma and the contradictions of his vacillating 
policy, by saying that he was ruled by his wish to conform to the 
prophecies which foretold the return of Quetzalcoatl, or of his de- 
scendants, and by his desire to retain empire even in spite of the 
envoys of that venerated god. Jealous of his sovereignty, Monte- 
zuma feared those strangers, concerning whom the most fearful 
accounts were brought him. Contact with these formidable beings 
could not fail to be fatal to his authority. On the other side, might it 
not be Quetzalcoatl, who, in accordance with tradition, was com- 
ing back, or had sent his children? A vague rumor had been in 
circulation for many years, that the solemn moment for the return 
of this good and powerful prince was near, and if so, what would be 
the result if he failed to receive the Spaniards with the greatest 
respect and eagerness? Threatening presages were multiplied. The 
astrologers predicted that calamities were impending over the empire, 
and without doubt to this motive is to be attributed the increase of 
human sacrifices offered to the gods in expiation. In the midst of his 
indecision, before the arrival of the Spaniards, Montezuma had called 
together the great council of the empire, of which the Kings of Tez- 
cuco and Tlacopan were members. 

Who were these men of an unknown race ? How should they be 
received ? Was this or not the return of Quetzalcoatl? Were they 
human or supernatural beings ? They ought to be human ; but many 
2:ood reasons were given why they might be envoys of Quetzalcoatl ; 
they came from the east; they were white and wore beards, and they 
were brave and invincible. Still, if they came on behalf of Quetzal- 
coatl, why were they enemies of the gods of the country? Some, 
among whom was Cacamatzin, who, as we have before stated, had 



MEXICO. 69 

succeeded his father, Nezahualpilli, on the throne of Tezcnco, were 
in faVor of receiving them well ; but this was not to the taste of Mon- 
tezuma. Finally, the emperor attached himself to neither party. In 
his embarrassment he neither opened his capital to the Spaniards nor 
employed any force to prevent them from reaching it, but dispatched 
ambassadors to them. The most skillful among them, Teutila, was 
instructed to learn what there was in common between the Spaniards 
and QuETZALcoATi., and seeing upon the head of a soldier a gilded 
helmet similar to the one which was placed upon the image of the 
god, he asked that it should be given to him to be sent in great haste 
to Mexico as a proof. Cortez still insisted on being permitted to 
deliver to the emperor the message, which he pretended to have 
brought from his sovereign. He even accomplished more ; he made 
friends of them while they were refusing him permission to ad- 
vance. In the meantime, he was at Tlascala, among the enemies 
of the Aztecs. He had shown himself more formidable than they 
had supposed. It was difficult to refiise his demand, but by some 
deceit they might be able to free themselves from their embarrass- 
ments. At Tlascala, then, Cortez was met by a last embassy from 
Montezuma, bringing with them, as before, rich presents. This time 
Cortez was invited to visit the emperor, and an effort was made to 
prevent him from allying himself to the Tlascalans, whom they 
represented as barbarians and people of bad repute. It was 
suggested to him to visit the capital by the rout of Cholula, 
alledging that extensive preparations had been made in that city to 
receive him. If the Spanish historians can be believed, all this was 
a plot prepared for him. 

I shall not particularly mention the events of Cholula, though they 
are a remarkable episode full of horrors. I shall similarly treat the 
details of the march from Cholula to Tenochtitlan, though in doing so 
I omit a description of interesting cities and gardens, more luxurious 
than those of Semiramis, of mountains, whose defiles recall to us the 
enchanted scenes of chivalric romances. Behold him in that Venice 
of the mountains. He inhabited a palace built by the Emperor Ax- 
AYACATL, the father of Montezuma, at the base of the great Pyramid. 
,This mighty mansion, composed of many separate dwellings, sur- 
rounded by one enclosure, served as quarters for the Spaniards and 
men of Tlascala, who accompanied them, with the numberless 
attendants supplied them by the emperor. They were in want of 
nothing. The inhabitants of the city exhibited to them the greatest 
hospitality, fully satisfied of their being more than human from 
the feats of prowess they had achieved, the dangers they safely 
5 



70 MEXICO. 

passed llirough. They were called white gods. But this was of little 
importance to Cortez ; he had not gone thither to enjoy the luxury 
of imperial hospitality. His great object was continually before him, 
and in this he had a vast advantage over Montezuma, harassed by 
a thousand uncertainties. The Aztecan monarch still exerted a 
mighty power. The terror ho excited in the minds of remoter parts 
of the empire was lessened, and this terror was the main source of his 
authority. Between Cholula and the capital, Cortez heard many 
murmurs against his empire, yet at the very gates of Mexico the 
Cempoallans, who till then liad blindly followed Cortez, had such an 
opinion of the emperor's power, that they came to say he would be 
unable to extricate himself from the city should he oflend Montezuma. 
In a solemn interview with Montezuma surrounded by his court, 
Cortez was told that it was impossible not to recognize him and his 
companions as envoys from the ]Most High, as well on account of the 
feats they had accomplished as the direction whence they came. The 
emperor considered Cortez a descendant of the good Quetzalcoatl, 
the beneficent civilizer of Anahuac. The monarch in whose name 
he came might be that god. As Montezuma thus spoke, his eyes 
became filled with tears, so that the stern conqueror could not doubt 
his sincerity. In the succeeding days he loaded the Spaniards with 
presents, so that every soldier had at least two gorgets of gold. 
Cortez, in the interim, had carefully estimated the vast resources of 
the emperor. He saw how earnestly devoted to him was the count- 
less population of Tenochtitlan and its environs. The violent 
temperament of his followers, excited by a brilliant series of victories, 
by the sight of measureless treasure, to which they already began to 
arrogate the victor's right, inspired him with anxiety, doubled by the 
ferocity of his Tlascalan allies, who detested the Aztecs and were 
looked on with similar disgust. The Tlascalans could not restrain 
the arrogance excited by their success. Above all, he was anxious 
relative to the answer to his messages, which he expected from Spain. 
Velasquez might have influence enough to effect his recall, or he 
might experience the envy Fonseca exhibited uniformly to all merit 
in the colonies. The Governor of Cuba might send out a new expe- 
dition commanded by n)en with the prestige of heroic deeds already 
performed. There was then no time to be lost. Montezuma was under 
the influence of a fascination of which he must be quick to take 
advantage. By such thoughls was the bosom of Cortez agitated for 
eight days after his entrance into the city. He had made it neces- 
sary for him to succeed, and add to the crown of Charles V. so 
rich a gem, that all his boldness might be pardoned. But there 



MEXICO. 71 

was one thing more to do, and this step was the most difficult of all 
his career. He was now the guest of JNIontezuma. He must be- 
come the emperor's master. Cortez trusted himself to fortune. 
Montezuma would become the vassal of the Spanish monarch, and 
Cortez had a certain pledge of the subordination and obedience of 
the emperor. This pledge would be the captivity of Montezuma. 

Cortez had performed many bold and daring feats, but this act was 
one of excessive temerity. Under pretext of perfidious conduct in a 
Mexican Governor, Quauhpopoca, who some time previous had order- 
ed two Spanish soldiers to be killed, Cortez, accompanied by five or six 
of his most intrepid followers, went to the imperial palace, and after 
an interview, ordered the emperor to follow him to the quarters of the 
Spaniards. ' Montezuma refused ; but was^told he must do so. He 
offered, as hostages, his children ; he was told he must come himself, 
and the Spaniards placed their hands upon their swords. This seemed 
like madness. The Imperial house was filled with guards — and the 
city with soldiers. Montezuma was powerful, as he had once said 
he had only to lift his finger to call myriads of warriors to the massacre 
of the Spaniards and Tlascalans. But Cortez, with the perception 
of genius, understood the advantage he had over Montezuma, and 
perceived his personal influence was greater than the power of the 
emperor over his subjects. This very absolute power of the emperor, 
as soon as he should have him in his keeping, would be a means of 
advancing his own views. Montezuma, fascinated by the daring 
Conquistador, yielded, but his vanity was excessive, and he wished to 
accompany him as if he went willingly. His court, guards and people 
all obeyed his edicts blindly from old habit, and a feeling of duty, and. 
therefore when he expressed his intention to accompany the Span- 
iards, they did not resist, but accompanied him to that prison, which, 
though irksome, he submitted to as if willingly ; but when he called, 
for his litter, saying that he purposed to fix himself in the Spanish 
barrack, the nobles, chiefs of his guard, and household looked on 
him with astonishment, and seemed to discredit what they saw and 
heard. The crowd in the streets saw him pass, and looked on the 
strange scene as an awful sacrilege ; but no one moved. Montezuma 
said that he had determined to live with the Spaniards. He was re- 
ceived in the Spaniard's quarters with the greatest respect. His family 
and attendants accompanied him in his captivity. 

As soon as Montezuma was in the power of Cortez, he was made 
to feel that if Emperor of Tenochtitlan, he was a vassal of the King 
of Spain. The unfortunate Quauhpopoca was tried, sentenced, 
and burned alive. During the period of execution, the unfortunate 



72 MEXICO. 

Montezuma, ns a guilty accomplice, was placed in irons. From that 
day Montezuma felt himself d(.'graded. After the punishment of 
Quauhpopoca, Cortez attempted in vain to soothe him with all the 
exterior marks of respect. Montezuma was deeply mortified, and 
his infhience over tiie people shaken to the foundation. The young 
King of Tezcuco, Cacamatzin, who was indebted to him for his crown, 
and was his nephew, expressed aloud his indignation, and undertook 
the organization of resistance to Cortez. Montezuma ordered liim 
to appear before him, and was answered, that Cacamatzin intended 
to appear in Tenochtitlan, but that it would be for the purpose of 
re establishing a degraded religion, and restoring to the empire its 
dignity and renown. That he would come with his hand on his 
breast, not as a suppliant, but on his sword, to exterminate the 
Spaniards who had brought on Anahuacsuch desolation. Cacamat- 
zin persisted in his intention, but Montezuma, who was perfidious 
towards those who confided in him, as he was cowardly towards 
those who were powerful, ordered him to be seized at a conference 
to which he had invited him, and delivered him up to Cortez. A 
more yielding prince was placed on the throne of Tezcuco. Freed 
from all embarrassment on this account, el Conquistador^ acting on 
the principle that one concession is only a means of exacting another, 
demanded from the unfortunate emperor a formal recognition of the 
sovereignty of Charles V., and of his own power. In their first in- 
terview Montezuma had told him, if we can believe the Spanish 
historians, that he was disposed to own himself a vassal of the King 
of Spain. 

All the chiefs of the empire were convoked in a species of parlia- 
ment. Montezuma recalled to them the tradition of Quetzalcoatl : 
"You remember that this powerful god, when he left us, declared 
that some day he would return to resume his authority. The time 
is come. These white men come from a land beyond the seas, where 
the sun rises, and reclaim for their monarch his authority over our 
land. I am ready to abandon it to them. You have been my faithful 
vassals during the many years I have occupied the throne; you will 
now give me a final proof of your obedience. You will acknowledge 
as your master the great prince of the countries beyond the seas, and 
obey in his absence the captain he has sent to you. You will pay to 
him the tribute usually brought to me, and henceforward he will dis- 
pose of them as he pleases." At these words tears and sobs interrupted 
his utterance, and his illustrious companions could not suppress their 
emotions. Each answered that if such were his orders, he should be 
obeyed. Immediately after, the oath of fidelity was administered, and 



MEXICO. 73 

a record of the proceedings drawn up by a royal notary. Spaniards, 
with the titles of collectors of tributes, were sent to the distant pro- 
vinces. Cortez already began to make establishments in the country, 
and detached fifty men under the command of Velasquez de Leon, 
to establish a colony at the mouth of the Guazacoalco, the best port 
in the Gulf of Mexico, and where he expected to find a natural pas- 
sage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Thus within six months 
all was accomplished, and the dream of Cortez became a reaUty. 

We have proceeded too rapidly ; he was but on the verge of his 
undertaking. The religious ardor of Cortez, long restrained, could not 
longer be repressed, and difficulties opened before him, compared with' 
which his bloody contest with the Tlascalans were but child's play. 
At the first interview with Montezuma, Cortez had spoken to him 
of his conversion. He had explained to him the Christian ideas of 
the creation of the world, and unfolded all the theological erudition 
he was possessed of. He told Montezuma he was a worshiper of 
Satan, and that eternal damnation would be the consequence of his 
persisting in it. He conjured him to save his soul, and secure the 
safety of his subjects, by adopting the holy faith of Christ, and hum- 
bling himself before the cross signed with the holy price of the blood of 
God. Montezuma replied, that the god of the Spaniards was doubtless 
a great god; that his own idea of the creation of the world w*ls not 
very different from that of Cortez; but that the gods of the Aztecs 
also were powerful, and had established his empire. He said he would 
continue faithful to them. A few days afterwards, visiting, in company 
with the emperor, the great temple in which were collected the sanc- 
tuaries of all the gods, Cortez, at the sight of the human blood 
which stained them, thus addressed the emperor. "How can so 
glorious and powerful a prince adore these idols, which are but repre- 
sentations of Satan? Ah, would you but permit me to erect here the 
cross, and images of the virgin and her son, you would then see what 
would become of these abominable gods." "Those gods," said Mon- 
tezuma, "have always led the Aztecs to victory. They send us 
the seed time and the harvest, and had I known you would not treat 
them with respect, I would not have admitted you into their presence." 
This scene took place before the captivity of the emperor. Father 
Olmedo, who was present, soothed the temper of Cortez, and soon 
temporal cares occupied all the attention of the great captain. But 
as soon as Montezuma submitted to acknowledge Charles V., the 
religious zeal of Cortez became more impetuous. "If I have done 
much for the Spanish crown," said he, " what have I done for the 
holy faith? Must it be said, that human sacrifices continue to be 
offered up in this city of his Catholic majesty ?" 



74 MEXICO. 

Followed by his principal officers, Cortez entered the private rooms 
of the emperor, and asked that the great temple be surrendered to 
the Spaniards for the worship of the Almighty, and that the Mexican 
people be invited to participate in the benefits of the religion of 
Christ. '< But, ]NL\LiNTziN," replied the frightened emperor, " your 
demands are so outrageous that the anger of the gods will be excited ; 
and my people will rebel before they will suffer their temples to be 
profaned." And, in truth, religion is the last institution which 
a people will sulfer to be profaned, and as long as a nation believes 
its religion to be true, it will sooner part with its nationality and inde- 
pendence than with it. After a conference with the priests, Monte- 
zuma declared that one of the sanctuaries of the great temple would 
be relinquished to him. An altar was erected and mass celebrated 
■with great pomp, by Fathers Olmedo and Diaz, while the next sanc- 
tuary, that of the god of war, echoed with the groans of the indig- 
nant Aztecs. 

From this day everything in Mexico wore an altered aspect. 
Until then Montezuma had been affable ^o the Spaniards. He was 
delighted with the society of some of them, and amused himself 
among them, always leaving them tokens of his munificence. He 
now became moody, avoided them, and passed his time among the 
most distinguished Aztecan warriors and priests. The people could 
scarcely restrain their animosity, their pride being every day mortified. 
The emperor sent for Cortez, and told him that the gods had informed 
his priests of their wrath, and demanded, under penalty of the severest 
punishments, that the Spaniards should be expelled. " You-have no 
chance of escape," said he, " but in retreat. Return to your homes, 
and you may be safe." Cortez, with great sang-froid, replied, that 
he was willing to leave the country, but that to do so, he must have 
vessels. Under the direction of Martin Lopez, a fleet was begun at 
Vera Cruz ; but Cortez took care that everything should be done with 
as little haste as possible. In the mean time the whole capital as- 
sumed a melancholy and angry look. The Mexicans prepared for 
attack, the Spaniards for defence ; at the first pretext swords would 
be drawn. 

All at once they learned that a fleet had appeared at Vera Cruz. It 
was large, and manned with Spanish soldiers. Their number was 
nine hundred, of whom eighty were cavalry, and as many arquebus 
men, four times as numerous as the Castilians who were with Cortez 
in the city. At this news the Spaniards were delighted, and cried aloud 
with joy. They were safe. Vain illusion ! this was the most danger- 
ous blow aimed at Cortez. This expedition came from Cuba, having 
been organized by Velasquez to overturn the pedestal of the statue 



MEXICO. 75 

Cortez had erected for himself in the temple of fame. From la villa 
rica de la Vera Cruz, Cortez had dispatched two of his officers to 
Spain with the sumptuous presents he had received for the emperor 
from Montezuma, and had cautioned them not to touch at Cuba. 
But one of them, owning property there, could not resist so strong a 
temptation to visit it, and through him the whole island had learned 
the el dorado so unexpectedly discovered by Cortez. The anger of 
Velasquez was excessive. He exhausted all his resources, to fit out 
an expedition Cortez would not dare to resist, and which would 
suffice to conquer the mighty Mexican empire. This was the expe- 
dition about to disembark at Vera Cruz, commanded by Narvaez, 
an officer of well-known courage. 

Cortez soon decided. With seventy Mexicans he left Mexico, 
placing Alvarado in command of the rest of his men, and advising 
him to be prudent and cautious. On his way he ordered to join him 
the hundred and fifty men he had detached to establish a colony on 
the banks of the Guazacoalco, and marched directly to meet Nar- 
vaez, who kept by no means a rigid watch. lie managed to com- 
municate with his soldiers, distributed warily gold among them, 
promised brilliantly, and luckily took Narvaez prisoner in a night 
attack, when he induced him to believe he had an overpowering 
force. All the companions of Narvaez, astonished at the wonders 
he had accomplished, and corrupted by his brilliant promises, placed 
themselves beneath his standard, and Cortez returned to Mexico on 
the 24th of June, 1520. 

On his entry the city seemed almost deserted. Scarcely an Aztec ' 
hailed his triumphant return ; on the whole lake beside the long 
causeway, there was not one canoe seen. The reason was, that 
Alvarado had added yet another grief to the religious indignities of 
the Aztecs. By an act of "the foulest perfidy he had murdered a 
majority of the youthful nobles while celebrating the festival of the 
god of war, probably to obtain possession of the valuable ornaments 
they wore. The number of Alvarado's victims was six hundred. 
As soon as Cortez entered his quarters he was besieged. He had 
taken precaution to build two brigantines as a means of escape over 
the lake, but the enraged people had burned them. A furious siege 
of the Spaniards began. A cloud of arrows continually fell on 
the palace of Axayacatl, which was their fortress. They returned it 
with artillery and musketry, which made terrible breeches in the 
serried ranks of the Aztecs. But what of that ? The assailants were 
innumerable, and died willingly if their lives purchased the death 
of a child of the sun. Cortez made sorties in which he always had 



76 MEXICO. 

the advantage, but he did not continue the less closely blockaded. 
The terraces of the houses were covered with soldiers; the bridges of 
the canals which bisect the streets were torn away. " You are ours," 
cried the Aztecs, "and the sacrificial stone is prepared; the knife of 
the priest is sharpened. The beasts of the menagerie growl with 
eagerness for your blood, which at last will flow to delight our god 
HuiTZTLOpoTCHLi. We havc cages in which we shall fatten the 
caitiff children of Anahuac (the Tlascalans) who are with you, that 
they may be worthy of sacrifice." " Speaking thus," says Bernal 
Diaz, " they fought so bravely that many of us who had served in 
France and Italy, against the i?-m«/.y of those countries, or in the 
Levant against the Turks, declared they had seen no people fight 
like the Indians. The brother of Montezuma commanded the siege, 
and distinguished himself by his intrepidity. Luckily Cortez was not 
easily intimidated. He had a body of iron and a soul of bronze. He 
hoped by means of this constant carnage, the Indians would be forced 
to yield. He attempted to frighten them with warlike machines of 
the "most formidable kind. ^ He tried negotiations, and made use of 
Montezuma as a mediator. The unfortunate emperor appeared in 
great pomp on the terrace of the Spanish quarter. At his appearance 
the crowd, used to obey, bowed itself. ' Are you come to rescue 
me ?' said he, with the calm tone of a man used to obey ; ' if so, I am 
no prisoner. I remain here among the white men, who are my 
guests. Are you come to compel them to leave ? If so, they are 
about to do so voluntarily.' The terms of friendship used by Monte- 
zuma towards the Spaniards, excited anew the rage of the populace; 
as soon as he had called himself the friend of the hated strangers, he 
became a traitor to his country and the gods. A volley of stones and 
arrows was directed against him, and being wounded by one of 
them, died in consequence a few days after." 

This event satisfied Cortez that his enemies would not submit. 
Besides, his provisions were exhausted, and only one course remained 
for him to adopt ; to cut a passage through. But to extricate himself 
he must pass through long streets, every house of which was a citadel 
with terraces covered with projectiles and men. Beyond the streets 
were long causeways across the lake, on the sides of which were boats 
loaded with armed men. To render themselves surer of their prey 
the Mexicans had destroyed the bridges, erected barricades, and 
broken even the causeways. * Yet Cortez, in a night march, reached 
the terra firma beyond the causeway of Tlacopan, the shortest of 
the three. But what a night was that ? In the stories of the Con- 
quistador es, and Spanish histories, it is known as la noche triste. 



MEXICO. 77 

Cortez lost one-half of his army. All who had encumbered them- 
selves with booty perished or were made prisoners. All the artillery 
was taken by the Aztecs, to whom, however, it was useless from the 
lucky fact that it had been forbidden to teach them the secret of 
manufacturing powder. The greatest bravery had' been necessary 
to accomplish even what they had achieved, to escape from the city. 
The women, even, fought heroically. Two of the Spaniards distin- 
guished themselves— especially the general and Alvarado, whose 
valor the Aztecs even applauded. They had preserved all who 
were saved. Alvarado had reached a place in the causeway where 
the bridge was broken. The horsemen locked together, threw them- 
selves into the breach, and carried over a great portion of the foot, 
but he alone remained on the other side to beat back the pursuers. 
It seemed that he could not escape, when, leaning on his long lance, 
and bracing himself on it with all his strength, he leaped over the in- 
terval and landed among his countrymen. Struck with amazement, 
the Aztecs cried out that he was a veritable child of the sun. The 
leap of Alvarado has been commemorated, and amid all his ex- 
ploits, has been selected to preserve his name. The second in com- 
mand of Cortez, the conqueror of the kingdom of Quiche, is desig- 
nated in chronicles as Alvarado of the Leap. 

Once on the main land, Cortez was attacked by an army which he 
conquered, when, like Cesar at Munda, he thought that at Otumba he 
was defeated, and that nothing was left except to die with glory. 
Then he proceeded to Tlascala to recruit and rest his army, and 
prepared to return with new forces to Tenochtitlan. 1 shall not 
speak of the course he adopted to render himself sure of the fidelity of 
the Tlascalans ; of the expeditions he made to nations whose fidelity 
had been shaken by the event of the noche triste, of the alliances he 
contracted and treaties he made, of the discontents and cabals which 
arose among his Spanish followers. The series of events and prodi- 
gies seems almost miraculous. I shall not speak of the embassy sent 
to Tlascala from Tenochtitlan, to concert a league of all the 
nations of Anahuac to expel the cruel strangers, enemies of gods and 
men, or of the debates in the Tlascalan senate relative to this matter. 
Yet it is as noble as the best scenes handed down to us of the Roman 
senate. Let us proceed with Cortez to Mexico, before which he 
appeared at the head of a large auxiliary force, whose armament he 
rendered perfect, and whom he subjected to severe discipline. A 
flotilla of three brigantines was to operate from the lake on the city. 

The brother of Montezuma, who succeeded to the empire, died after 
a reign of four months, of the small-pox, which had been introduced 



78 MEXICO. 

into the country by the soldiers of Narvaez. In his place, Guati- 
MoziN, a nephew and son-in-law of iMontezuma, was chosen, a young 
man of twenty-five years of age; of established courage, of remark- 
able intelligence and great beauty, who, like Hannibal against the 
Romans, had vowed an irreconcilable hatred to the Spaniards. Cortez, 
who luUy appreciated his difficulties, and neglected nothing to insure 
his success, established a code of regulations, obedience to which he 
positively enjoined. This body of regulations has been preserved. The 
great object of his expedition, wliich he was careful to inculcate on 
his soldiers, was the conversion of the Pagans; this was the secret 
of their strength and success. " On any other terms," says he, " our 
war is unjust, and all the benefit we can acquire from it will be 
wealth won with crime." Blasphemy, gambling, etc., were forbidden 
under severe penalties. One might have called it a crusade and com- 
pany of adventurous knights, and Cortez supposed it such, and him- 
self a Godfrey of Bouillon. On the other hand the priests, who 
exerted a great influence over Guatimozin, preached to the Aztecs 
that no compromise with the Spaniards was possible ; that they must 
either conquer or die. As in the Girusalemme liberata, Heaven is 
unfolded both as a Pagan Olympus and a pit of fallen angels. As in 
the Iliad, men think the inhabitants of realms above participate in 
their quarrels. This, at least, happened to the Spaniards, who be- 
lieved that the Virgin Mary appeared in the air, and that their patron 
Santiago charged in their ranks on his spotless charger of white, to- 
gether with St. Peter, the patron of Cortez. 

On each side there was a countless host, for Cortez had one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand auxiliaries; on each side there were great valor 
and ardor. The Aztecs defended themselves as a people, fighting/?7'o 
«W,se//ocw, fights always. The Spaniards, like those who fought under 
the commands of gods, or like ambitious men who fight for honor 
and fame. The Indian auxiliaries strove to gratify old enmities and 
be revenged for long oppression. They wished to annihilate the crue 
masters who so long tyrannized over them. More than once the vic- 
tory was doubtful, in spite of the ferocious valor of the Tlascalans, 
and the deep determination of the Prince of Tezcuco, Ixtlixochitl. 
The intrepidity of the handful of Spaniards, and personal bravery of 
Cortez, everywhere won success, but at a dear price. They fought on 
the lake as well as on the water, at a distance, and hand to hand, by 
day and by night, on the platforms of the pyramids, the terraces of 
the houses, and the thick ooze of the lake. Stratagem and audacity 
were made use of, and often the cunning of Guatimozin endangered 
the conquistadores. In la noche irisie, Cortez had undergone great 



MEXICO. ^ 79 

peril. In the attack of Xochimilco {the field of flowers), one of the 
cities of the valley, he was for a few minutes a prisoner. All had 
been over whh him, but for the disposition of the x\ztecs to reserve 
him as an ultra-solemn sacrifice ; a Tlascalan and two of his own 
attendants rescued him. On the next day, he sought for the Tlas- 
calan to reward him ; but vainly: he could not be found, and it was 
believed by the army, that Saint Peter under this disguise had rescued 
the general. During the siege of Mexico, Cortez, at the very eager 
solicitation of his companions, determined on a certain day to make a 
general assault. "We are left," said the soldiers, "exposed to all the 
inclemencies of the season, a prey to famine, while the city of pagans 
could so easily be carried by a coup de main. Did we not long 
since, by main force, penetrate into tlie very heart of the city, to the 
palace of the emperor, and the temple where Satan is adored under the 
name of the infamous idol Huitzilopotchli? Did we not set fire to 
their infamous sanctuary, and throw to the base of the pyramid the 
guilty priests who presided over it ? Lead us to the assault." " Be 
it so," said Cortez, alarmed by the general murmurs. Two columns 
of attack were formed, the one commanded by Alvarado, the other 
by Cortez ; after mass they were moved forward. Cortez subdivided 
his column into three bodies, and advised the chiefs to be circumspect. 
The Aztecs retreated, but fought valiantly ; the Spaniards, conducted 
by the treasurer Alderete, (all the men of thatexpedition were heroes,) 
by Andres de Tapia, and the brother of Alvarado, pressed them 
warmly. They had reached the centre of the city, and victory seemed 
within their grasp. Suddenly, from the top of a teocalli, the horn of 
Guatimozin was heard. At once the flying Indians turned, others con- 
cealed within the houses showed themselves on the terraces; the 
cross streets were filled with warriors ; men rushe'd from the willows 
on the banks of the lake, and attacked the Spaniards and their allies 
with fury. Disorder seized every rank, and the artillery became 
useless ; all was a frightful melee. Many Spaniards were killed or 
taken. Cortez himself wounded, was seized by six athletic men, 
who, seeing him alone, cried out, " Seize Malintzin ! seize him," 
and rushed on him. He was again rescued from them, but the 
horn of Guatimozin, which seemed powerful as that of Jislolfo, 
again sounded, and the impetuosity of the Aztecs returned. They 
threw at the feet of Cortez the heads of many Spaniards, crying: 
" There is Tonatiuh! (this was the name given to Alvarado ;) there 
is Sandoval ! (the bosom friend of Cortez.) Against the column of 
Alvarado they threw other heads, saying,/ there was Malintzin. 
Fortunately, neither the general nor Alvarado, nor Sandoval had 
fallen ; but the Spaniards were routed, and reached their entrench- 



80 MEXICO. 

ments with great difficulty, and at night, could not, without terror, 
behold the awful ceremony enacted on the great Teocalli. Their 
companions, who were prisoners, were immolated before the statues 
of the gods, and the bloody corpses thrown amid a mob which strove 
eagerly to devour them. 

This victory of Guatimozin excited the greatest enthusiasm among 
the Aztecs, and the nations which had remained faithful to them. 
The priests proclaimed that the gods, satisfied by the sacrifice of the 
Spanish prisoners, had promised to free the country from- the in- 
truders, and that within eight days this would be accomplished. 
At this intelligence, the allies of the Spaniards became terrified. 
They deserted in large numbers, not to the Aztecs, whose indigna- 
tion they feared, but to return home. But Cortez watched his camp 
rigidly. The sorties of the besieged were repulsed, and the Spaniards 
had lost nothing except the services of a few marauders. The allies, 
seeing that the oracle had erred, returned to the Spanish camp. The 
ardor of the besieged grew cold, and they found themselves face to 
face, with scourges by which they had long been threatened — famine 
and diseases" engendered by misery, and a too dense population. 
From exaltation they passed to despair; they saw their old vassals 
demolish the parts of the city of which Cortez had possessed himself, 
and level to the ground its edifices. 

Cortez, who understood their situation, sent to Guatimozin three 
chiefs he had made captives, and besought him to submit, promising 
to leave him in possession of the crown; and that the Aztecs should re- 
tain their possessions and dignities under the sovereignty of the King 
of Spain. The young prince received the envoys with distinction, 
and heard respectfully their commission. Probably because he was 
not fully authorized himself to act, he referred them to a council com- 
posed of the principal military chiefs, and most distinguished of his 
subjects. Some advised that the proposition of Cortez should be ac- 
cepted, but the priests who understood that, under the government of 
the Christians, their influence was lost, interposed. " Peace," they said 
to the emperor, "is a great blessing except with the whites, violators 
of every promise, of hmitless avarice, and ever offending the gods. 
Let us confide in the gods who have ever been protectors of our 
nation. Is it not better to die, than live the slaves of those false and 
wicked men ?" The courage of Guatimozin was restored, if it had 
ever wavered, by their eloquence, and he said, " Well, we will 
die on the field of battle ; woe to him who shall speak of surrender." 
As an answer to the message of Cortez, after the expiration of two 
days, Guatimozin ordered a general sortie, which was unsuccessful. 
The Aztecs were beaten back, and shut up in a few quarters of 



MEXICO. 81 

the city. Famine became more oppressive to them ; they supported 
themselves on Uzards and rats ; they searched for reptiles and insects, 
and gnawed the barks of the trees, and during the night searched for 
roots. In the meantime, Cortez, who had no other means of sub- 
duing them, continued the work of destruction, though with great 
unwillingness. Pyramids and palaces wer,e torn down, as well as 
the huts inhabited by the populace. The work of ruin was carried 
on by the allies, to whom the Aztecs cried out, " Wretches, the 
more you tear down, the more you will be forced to rebuild; for 
should we conquer, our capital must be restored to its prior magnifi- 
cence. If the white men succeed, they will demand not less than 
we." In spite of the presence of innumerable difficulties, the brave 
Aztecs kept up their courage. They replied with hauteur and dis- 
dain when told they had no provisions. One of the chiefs attached 
to Cortez, remonstrated with them relative to their awful condition, 
at one of the conferences, which were so frequent between the as- 
saults and sorties. They threw tortillas in his face, saying they 
yet had enough for themselves and their soldiers. 

But famine and disease decimated them. Cortez saw them pale and 
thin wandering about the terraces and barricades, as street after street 
was wrested from them ; they were found full of bodies evidently 
victims of famine. Careful as they were to pay punctually every 
funeral honor in happier days, now all were neglected. In the 
houses famished women and children were found, scarcely able to 
drag along their bodies; for all able to move, of course took refuge in 
the yet unconquered quarters of the city. In this sad state they yet 
reproached the Spaniards that they did not terminate the contest. 
"Ye are not children of the sun, for he is rapid in his course, while 
ye are slow and languid. Be quick, that we may rejoin our God 
HiJiTziLOPOTCHLi, wlio will reward us for all we have suffered on 
his account." At other times they insulted ; they said they would 
look in vain for treasures; that all their gold was concealed where it 
could never be found. Cortez, having sent a prisoner of high rank 
to GuATiMoziN, to induce him to surrender, the unfortunate envoy 
was sacrificed. 

But at length the Aztecs were shut up within a single quarter, the 
smallest of all, and only about an eighth of the area of the whole 
city, without a sufficient number of buildings to shelter them. Many 
remained both by day and night in the open air in boats, and among 
the rushes of the lake. Every day Cortez had fresh proof of the 
misery of their situation. For some time they had subsisted on the 
prisoners made in their sorties. This resource even they were de- 



82 MEXICO. I 

prived of. Men were taken at night seeking for offal which at other 
times they would have disdained, or attempting witii their nails to 
dig up a handful of roots. Mothers were said to have murdered and 
devoured their own children. An epidemic caused by the miasma 
with which tiie atmosphere was filled, decimated those who had 
escaped from famine. Cortex pitied them ; he gave orders to cease all 
acts of aggression. How could he make himself obeyed by the fero- 
cious Tlascalans, the former vassals of the Aztecan empire, who 
strove to revenge themselves for the great oppression they had suf- 
fered? lie strove again to induce Guatimozin to submit. At the 
instance of his chiefs, the young monarch at last consented to au 
interview. They were to have met in the vast market-place, where 
Cortez, under a rich canopy, had prepared a magnificent banquet, and 
wished to invite his enemy to satisfy his hunger. At the appointed 
hour Guatimozin did not come, but sent a message by the chiefs who 
had been sent to him by Cortez, excusing himself. The cause of this 
may have been that he feared el Coriquisludor wished to get him into 
his power, and that the fate of Montezuma, who had been a passive 
instrument to effect his own overthrow, appeared the greatest of all 
misfortunes ; or it may be he was prevented by the influence of the 
priests. The Conquistador made all the Aztecs who had met him, 
satisfy their hunger, and, with provisions, sent another invitation for 
Guatimozin to meet him. The proud Guatimozin sent back other 
presents in return; the same persons returned to the Spanish camp 
bearing cotton cloths, but without the emperor. Cortez again pressed 
an interview with such success that a promise of Guatimozin to 
visit him at noon, was made. He was again disappointed, and saw 
with regret, that the besieged prepared silently to defend their last 
stronghold. On the next day there was a massacre, rather than a 
fight. The allies of Cortez slaughtered forty thousand Aztecs, with- 
out sparing age or sex. Their fury excited the indignation of 
Cortez, who, writing to his master, said : "The cries of the children 
and women who were murdered remorselessly, were so frightful, that 
the hearts of each of us was moved. . . . Never have I seen such 
cruelty," (he spoke of the allies.) Yet on the next day Guatimozin 
refused to treat with the Spanish leader. 

This took place on the 13lh of August, 1521. This was the last 
day of an empire, which but three years before was so flourishing. 
Before giving the orders for a final attack, Cortez invited the emperor 
to appear. The messenger returned with the cihuacoatl, a magis- 
trate of the first rank, who declared with an air of consternation 
that Guatimozin knew how to die, but would not treat. Then turn- 



MEXICO. 83 

ing to Cortez, he said, "Do what you choose." " Be it so," said Cortez ; 
" return to your friends and say they must die." The troops advanced. 
There were a final niHee and carnage on the lake, and in the city. 
The exhausted Mexicans, in their despair and devotion, looked for 
strength for a final contest. Guatimozin, driven to the banks of the 
lake, with a {q\^ warriors entered a boat, and sought to escape, but 
a brigantine of the Spanish flotilla pursued him, by which he was 
captured and taken to Cortez, who received him with all the respect 
due to a king. Advancing with dignity on the terrace prepared for 
the sad interview of a captive king with his conqueror, he said, " I have 
done everything in my power, Malintzin, to preserve my crown and 
people. You see how I have fallen, and you can do with me as you 
please." Then pointing to the poignard at the conquistador^ s girdle, 
he said, "Draw it and finish with me." "No," said Cortez, "you shall 
be treated with profound respect. You have defended your capital like 
a gallant prince, and Spaniards know how to honor tne valor even of 
arsenemy." He then ascertained where was the empress, a daughter 
of Montezuma, and sent an escort for her. He ordered a meal to be 
prepared for the august consorts. The Aztecan empire had ceased to 
exist, and the Spanish rule was established in Mexico. The cross 
was raised over this beautiful country, in which it was allowed to 
have no rival. 



When v/e look at the conquest of Mexico under political and 
reli'gious aspects, it presents features of great interest, but in other 
points of view also it is interesting. We seem in its history to read 
an epic poem or chivalric romance. So vast and stupendous are 
its incidents and events, the men appear gigantic, and the miraculous 
enters into its composition. To form an idea of the grandeur of the 
events, we have only to retrace what was achieved. An adventurer, 
who left Cuba with 553 soldiers, 110 sailors, 16 horses, 13 arquebuses, 
32 arbalets, 10 cannon, and 4 falconets, dares to attack an empire 
evidently populous and brave, whose sovereign was feared by every 
one, and had among his vassals 130 tributaries, each of whom could 
bring into the field 100,000 armed men. Cortez not only compelled 
it to recognize as its sovereign, his master Charles V., but to 
abandon its religion, the greatest sacrifice a people can be called on 
to make. He willed it, dared to attempt it, and succeeded within 
the space of thirty months. 

Compared with such a subject, the theme of the Iliad seems small 
and uninteresting. What indeed is the subject of the great poem of 
Homer, but the restoration of a good understanding between Achilles 



84 MEXICO. 

and Agamemnon, without any crisis, for it results in nothing, in 
which tlie leader of the defenders of Troy is conquered by the 
bravest of the Greeks. The jEneid is not constructed on the largest 
scale. Two chiefs of tribes, iEneas and Turnus, with nearly an 
equal number of followers, contend for the hand of the daughter of 
the King of Latium. In each of these two chefs d^cBuvres, the poet 
has drawn, upon his own resources for the miraculous, and the rich 
embroidery of adventure. In either case it was necessary to strew 
over the true history, geographical and historical ideas, far in advance 
of those of the author's age. On this account the Iliad and ^neid 
are, as it were, encyclopedias of two epochs important in the annals 
of the human race, written in the most admirable form by men. of 
rare genius and information. They present an animated picture of 
thoughts and faith, knowledge and habits of life, of manners and 
arts of the two great people from whom onr civilization is sprung, 
and with whom we feel ourselves united as if by the umbilical cord. 
Consequently they take hold of our feelings, and remain immortal 
monuments, which will remain in all vividness so long as the civili- 
zation of the West of Europe shall last. And this civilization is not 
likely to terminate, uniting as it does Rome and the Empire of Japan. 
The Girusalemme liberata records the shock of two masses of great 
but almost equal power. The truth there triumphs, because it is the 
truth; a just conclusion, doubtless, but one which the reader foresees, 
and which destroys in him all enthusiasm. It was in vain that care 
was taken to mingle with it much of the marvelous ; the poem was 
not wonderful. Nothing can in point of intrinsic value of result be 
compared with the conquest of Mexico, except that of Asia by Alex- 
ander, or the foundation of the Portuguese power in India. In each 
of these two instances there was a marked disproportion between 
the respective powers. The smaller triumphed over the greater. 
The force of genius was revealed in all its splendor; by a sublime 
effort, man passed beyond the sphere to which he is ordinarily 
limited, and accomplished miracles. 

If the conquest of Mexico, considered as a whole, is surprising, 
its details are no less so; we know not what to admire in this brilliant 
succession of incidents, for everywhere astonishment springs forth 
from its details as light does from a diamond, as dazzling lustre ema- 
nates from purple and gold. Shall we decree the highest praise to the 
prompt decision which induced the conqueror to burn the fleet, that 
he might insure conquest or iailnre to himself, or to the daring which 
prompted him to arrest the emperor in his palace ? Shall we decree 
the palm to the campaign against Narvaez or to the battle of Otumba, 



MEXICO. 85 

where Cortez, with his numbers reduced to a mere handful, nearly 
routed and without artillery conquered the Mexican forces, maddened 
with the success of la noche triste, and in the hour of his victory 
killed the Mexican general. Where, in history or romance, is 
there such an event recorded as his combat on the platform of the 
great teocalli, where the two parties precipitate each other from 
declivities 120 feet high? But look yet more closely into the detail; 
everywhere you will find deeds which recall to you the days of chi- 
valry. Look at the leap of Alvarado, and the daring of those young 
Mexicans, who take each other by the hand, and rush down the grand 
pyramid with the hope of bearing Cortez with them, willing to die if 
they can thus destroy the enemy of their gods and country. And 
look at the daring of the five soldiers who go to gather sulphur in 
the crater of Popocatepetl, when, for want of that mineral, the 
army is without ammunition for their artillery. They are not sure, but 
suspect the volcano produces sulphur. Five men volunteer to ascend 
it. No one attempted it from that time till 1827. After labor of 
many days, they reach the summit in spite of the lava and ashes, of 
the blinding glare of the snow, and the excess of cold. They look into 
an abyss of 1000 feet, in the depth of which they see a blue flame, 
with which are mingled poisonous vapors. They cast lots to decide 
who shall venture to descend. The chief of the small band, Montano, 
is the one the fates select. They place him in a basket fastened to a 
cord, and lower him. After a descent of 400 feet he carefully collects 
the sulphur, and returns as if he had done nothing more extraordi- 
nary than strolling through the gardens of Sevilla or Cordova. 

In this drama a variety of strongly defined characters appear. I 
do not say that they are equally so with those of the ^neid, for this 
expression would be too feeble, but with those of the Iliad itself. He, 
whom the Aztecs called Tonatiuh, (the sun,) on account of his lofty 
stature and his long golden hair, Alvarado del Salto, with the colos- 
sal figure of the lofty Ajax, the valor of the son of Tydeus, the daring 
of the other Ajax, pauses at nothing, not even at sacrilege. By the side 
of this terrible figure we love to look at the young and heroic San- 
doval, whom Cortez calls his son, and who is to him Sijidus Achates 
or Patroclus. But he far surpasses the friend of iEneas or the son of 
Menoetius. He commands admiration by his energy and courage. 
He is interesting on account of admiration he inspires in and receives 
from Cortez. After an assault, in which the Spaniards had been re- 
pulsed by Guatimozin, he left his tent to visit the head-quarters of 
Cortez, whom the Aztecs boasted to have slain ; he passed on his 
horse, worn by the toils of a hard-fought battle, a field thronging 
6 



86 M E X I c o . 

with his enemies, through which every reader follows him with such 
an interest as Tancrede and Rinaldo rarely excite. Christoval de 
Ohd, who afterwards proves a traitor to his leader, Velasquez de 
I^eon, Avila, Quifiones, Tapia and Escalante, may surely be compared 
with Idomeneus, Pliiloctetes, Morion, Menelaus, Antilochus and Me- 
nestheus. The cowardly Thersites, the scandal-monger of the Iliad, 
finds his equal among the conspirators who surround the general and 
attempt his life, or among the followers of Narvaez, who, loaded 
with booty, attempt their escape, and try to effect a safe return to 
Cuba. The Father Olmeda, a clergyman of enlightened faith and 
true charity, who restrains the eager propagandism of the Spaniards, 
is more human and interesting than the inanimate Calchas. Who 
would exchange the watchful pilot Alaminos for the sleeping Pali- 
nurus? The leader of all, Cortez, to the inflexible majesty of the 
great Agamemnon, and the high qualities of command which dis- 
tinguish the king of kings, adds the impetuosity of Achilles and the 
skill of Ulysses, ever fruitful in expedients and artifice. 

Among the Indian auxiliaries we distinguish the Prince of Tez- 
cuco, IxTLixocHiTL, brave and faithful to the side he has selected, 
who, often called a traitor by the Aztecs, ever refutes the charge by 
deeds of almost incredible daring ; and Xicotencatl, of Tlascala, a 
hero yet more complete, who is constantly molested and mortified by 
the reproaches of the Aztecs, and a suspicion that the Spaniards are 
come to enslave all the red men. These, too, strangely contrast. How 
different, too, are their fates ? The one becomes cacique of Tezcuco ; 
the other dies on the scaffold as a deserter, because, during a siege, he 
left their ranks in disgust, and took refuge in the mountains — a ter- 
rible example Cortez thought necessary to hold up to the new vassals 
of his master, that they might fully comprehend their new duties, and 
the dangers of disobedience. Another chief of the Tlascalans, the 
aged Magiscazin, by his prudence and fidelity, and by the energy 
with which, when the envoys of the Aztecs had almost persuaded 
the Tlascala N senate to abandon Cortez, then a refugee and exile, 
he persuaded it to be true, resembles Nestor, faithful to the gods 
when he saw the Greeks retreat before Hector. He argued with 
Cortez as the King of Pylas would have done, of the truth of the re- 
ligion of his fathers. 

The characters of the Mexicans are not less strongly defined. 
Hector does not make Guatimozin seem diminutive, and we would 
trust ourselves rather in a city defended by him than to the aegis of thp 
son of Priam. At the age of twenty-five, this prince, the last emperor 
of the Aztecs, bursts forth in heroic greatness and splendor at the 



MEXICO. 87 

moment when an opposition to oppression is to be organized : of unim- 
peachable bravery, he shows himself famihar with all the stratagems 
of war. In disaster his resignation appears sublime. On the brazier 
on which Cortez, to satisfy the avidity of his companions, had placed 
him to make him reveal where he had concealed his treasures, which 
he had not done, because he had no more to conceal, he continues a 
monarch. He dies like a king, when el Conquistador, led astray 
by false news," daring a long and painful campaign in the Isthmus of 
Honduras, destroys him. The brother of Montezuma, Cuitlahua, 
brave and intelligent captain and warrior, and devoted patriot, is 
more interesting than Agenor or iEneas. Among the other Trojan 
chiefs, none is more interesting than the cacique of Tezcuco, Caca- 
MATZiN, when he receives with indignation the order sent him by 
Montezuma to obey the Spaniards. And among the Aztecs there 
was no Paris to retreat unworthily, for every one died in his harness. 
Montezuma himself, the unfortunate Montezuma, is not cast in a 
common type. Liberal and generous even to prodigality, elegant 
almost to the verge of effeminacy, royally affable, his mind too is 
highly cultivated. In his youth he had been brave, and belonged to 
the order of Quachictin, who were the bravest of the brave. By 
degrees, however, he fell under the influence of an imbecile bigotry. 
He believed that the astrological signs and ancient propiiecies of his 
nation demanded him to submit to the Spaniards. With an incon- 
ceivable contradiction, which reveals much weakness of mind, super- 
stition effaced in his heart the feeling of patriotism, and made him 
basely yield to those whose avowed object was the destruction of his 
religion. Vainly the love of country, the sentiment of ambition, and 
the passion of power, so fascinating to any one who has once enjoyed 
it, united to arouse him ; he could find in his mind nothing but the 
debased cunning of a Greek of the lower empire. Mr! Prescott has 
somewhere compared him to Louis XIV., and in doing so has greatly 
wronged the French monarch. If Louis XIV., like Montezuma, was 
so luxurious as to neg4ect his subjects, he had the excuse of great 
age; he suffered himself to be influenced by false ideas so as to re- 
voke the edict of Nantes, an event in the history of France to be ever 
regretted and lamented. It is true that the predominating trait of 
his mind continued always to be love of country. He ever felt him- 
self the representative of nationality, and as such, under the necessity 
of never bending his head ; and on the eve of the day of Denain, 
when the fortunes of France were at stake, his words to the auda- 
cious Villars were sublime. While alive, no mortal could have ironed 
him. However good in other respects they may be, characters with- 



88 MEXICO. 

out decision play a contemplible part in liistory. Of these was Mon- 
tezuma. Louis XIV., on the contrary, was always distinguished for 
his resolution. Thus it was that he established a great monarchy, 
and founded a political system, while Montezuma suffered his empire 
to crumble away beneath him. 

The women are not wanting in. the epopea of the conquest. There, 
it is true, there is neither a noble and touching Andromache, nor a gen- 
tle and tender Iphigenia, nor a melancholy Hecuba, nor inconsolable 
Dido. Yet the character of the young and beautiful girl of Guaza- 
coalco, daughter of a cacique, but sold by an inhuman mother to a 
slave-merchant, is exceedingly noble. When become the property of 
Cortez, to whom she had been presented by a cacique of Yucatan, 
she became the interpreter,^the faithful adviser, and, to speak plainly, 
mistress of the conqueror. Dona Marina, always the companion of 
Cortez, was not solely engaged in interpreting his orders to the Mexi- 
cans. By means of that power of intuition which a woman who 
loves possesses in a much higher degree than any man, she frequently 
gave him salutary warnings. By means of her, Cortez ascertained 
who were the spies sent by Xicotencatl to lull his vigilance, and 
her advice afterwards sent them back to their master with their 
hands amputated. By her means, also, in the sacerdotal and 
commercial city of Cholula, he discovered a conspiracy to extermi- 
nate at once the little band of Castihans. Marina had great influence 
on the natives; beautiful, says Comergo, the historian of Tlascala, 
as a divinity, she seemed to the Mexicans something of a superior 
order to themselves. Her relation to Cortez, which no one was 
ignorant of, induced them to speak of her always next to him. Her 
real name was Malinche; Cortez was known only as Malintzin, The 
interview and reconciliation of Marina and her mother, who, by 
some strange casualty, chanced to be in the line of march of Cortez 
to Honduras, are an interesting page of history. 

Should we wish to compare the material of the Iliad with that of 
the conquest, superiority will be found entirely on the side of the lat- 
ter event. The melee of la noche triste has much more true gran- 
deur than the assault of the defences of the Greeks. What is this 
defence compared with that in which the Tlascalans fortified them- 
selves against the Aztecs, or the entrenchments of Cortez during the 
siege ? What is the attack of Hector on the vessels compared to the 
assaults of the quarters of Cortez, before his retreat, by the Aztecs? 
What comparison is there between the building of the wooden 
horse, and the construction of the thirteen vessels in the forests of 
Tlascala,*by the naval architect, Martin Lopez, and their transporta- 



MEXICO. 89 

tion in pieces on the backs of men for twenty leagues to the banks 
of the lake, in which was the capital of Tenochtitlan ? 

The historian and poet are not called upon to imagine the mar- 
velous, the intervention of Heaven in the conquest of Mexico. The 
actors of the conquest have rendered that trouble unnecessary. I have 
already said that among the companions of Cortez were men whose 
youth had been passed in war against the French in Italy, in naval 
contests with the Turks, who believed they saw the Apostle St. 
James fighting in their behalf on his white steed, and the Virgin 
Mary encouraging him. They saw this, says Bernal Diaz. Cortez 
himself was persuaded that his patron St. Peter assumed the arms 
and appearance of a Tlascalan to save his life. To the Spaniards 
the Mexican divinities seemed personations of Satan, who unfolded 
against them sorceries, and to which Heaven replied, of course, by 
miracles. At the early part of the conquest, the cavaliers were sup- 
posed to be a separate class of physical beings ; the rnan and horse 
were supposed components parts of one body. The fable of the 
Centaurs was renewed. The men seemed themselves divine, and we 
are told they were called the white gods. Certainly, the vague 
rumors from Yucatan of the arrival of those singular beings, and fair- 
haired and bearded men, were believed literally throughout the 
empire. The imagination drew evil auguries from their arrival. 
On his death-bed, Nezahualpilli, King of Tezcuco, learned in 
astrology, announced to Montezuma that the end of the empire was 
come. The gods to him appeared to be enraged. A blazing comet 
appeared. The waters of the lake swelled and overflowed the city 
without any preceding tempest or earthquake. A conflagration de- 
vastated the capital ; loud and wailing voices were heard in the air, 
and the Princess Papantzin, sister of the emperor, who had been 
four days dead, left her tomb, to announce to him coming calamity. 
What can be more strange and more likely to influence them than 
the tradition that the God QuETZALCOATL,he of the pale face and long 
beard, was about to return from the east to reclaim his empire, or 
else send his descendants in his stead ? Does not this popular idea 
seemingly point expressly to the expedition of Cortez ? 

Among the motives which authorize poets to mingle in with earthly 
aff'airs, divine acts, and so to say, to give corporeality to their fictions, 
so as to induce the mass of men to believe them literally, we may 
especially mark two. One is the faciUty of accounting for otherwise 
inexplicable acts; the other, the concurrence of many accidents, 
among the number of which it is not forbidden to include genius, 
which oflTer solutions opposed to all probability, and which, in com- 



90 MEXICO. 

mon parlance, we call the insolence of prosperity. This is what the 
skeptic attributes to chance ; but the mass of men and religieux (woe 
to the poet who is not religious !) to Providence. When religious 
facts present to us one or the other of these varieties of character, we 
have only to pass them through the mirror of fancy to see all that is 
wonderful in them. Now, from the very embarkation of Cortez to 
the taking of Mexico, all things are of this character. At every step 
we meet with an apparently insurmountable obstacle, which, how- 
ever, was overcome by an almost incredible union of intelligence, 
daring and decision, or fortuitous chances contradicting every proba- 
bility. The Spaniards at this era, but, let us do no injustice to the 
country of Vasco de Gama and Albuquerca, and say the inhabitants 
of the whole peninsula, were then the great nation in Europe, and 
Heaven itself seemed to assist them. 

But I return to what I said in the beginning of this essay. The 
distinguishing character of the conquest was derived from its religious 
propagandism. In our days the love of glory and devotion to liberty 
excite men to great actions. The ruling passion of the Spaniards of 
that era was the advancement of the holy faith. They were, as it 
were, possessed of this idea. A motive powerful as this was required 
to produce, even in such a nature as Cortez, the achievements he 
performed. Those who say such heroism was inspired by avarice, 
are either ignorant of, orcakmmiate human nature. I have attempt- 
ed to restore to the conquest its true character, and to attribute to 
Cortez and his companions their true motives. My object has been 
not merely to define the truth of an isolated historical event, but to 
recall to an age little prone to faith, what true religious zeal is capable 
oL It alone gives us the key to Mexican history down to the present 
time, and of the present condition of this vast empire. In it alone 
rests the secret of its rapid decay, and equally Vdi^t'id. possible regene- 
ration, Cortez was one of those giants who gave such violent impulse 
to nations they interfere with, that centuries must pass before they 
can recover from the blow. His personal character is imprinted oti 
the features of Mexico, even on institutions which arose after he had 
passed from the stage. This beautiful country is exclusively Catholic, 
and its inhabitants, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of Catholicism, 
have no prospects in advance separate from their faith Persons who 
have sojourned among them and studied their nature, are doubtful 
whether they will retrocede into barbarity, or will undergo a new 
conquest by a Protestant race which promises to itself the empire 
of the world, and which is now inflamed by the possession of Texas: 
or whether they will remain free, and progress in the pathway of 



MEXICO. 91 

civilization. We may believe from, the rank occupied by Mexico 
in the New World, that, all the republics which were Spanish colo- 
nies will follow its destiny, whatever it may be. The question here, 
which a few years will suffice to solve for Mexico, and the resolution 
of which is of great import to the whole of the new continent, is 
more closely connected than is generally conceived with the vaster 
one ; viz., whether the genius of Catholicism, when in close contact 
with that of Protestantism, can preserve its position, or whether in 
our times Catholicism can restore a healthy tone to a people struck 
with the languor of decay. Let us remember that France has a 
vaster interest than is generally conceived in this question, for it has 
ever been and still is the corypheus of Catholic nations; and from 
this fact derives its chiefest claim to greatness. 



THE END. 



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